DYSLEXIA AND
COMPUTER-AIDED WRITING
PUBLIC
PROGRAM
IBM’S WRITING TO READ PROGRAM S
It Reads, Writes and
It Paints in 3-D, Keeps
and Talks to
See us at COMDEX, Booth W648
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT-THE
MASTERMIND. This advanced data-base
manager stores and retrieves multiple files
quickly, easily and reliably. What's more, it
shares all information with the other programs,
so you never have to re-enter the same data
twice.
ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEET-NUMBER
CRUNCHING AND GOAL SEEKING. It helps
you produce forecasts, cost estimates and
"break-even1' points— In seconds, Instead of
hours or days. Best ot alt. It allows "goal
seeking" Ask, lor example, "What sates must I
have the rest of the year to net SI million?
and OPEN ACCESS will figure It out!
3-D GRAPHICS-NOT JUST PRETTY
PICTURES. These graphics distill raw data
Into trends that can be Instantly visualized,
helping you discern the important facts from
a wealth of Information.
does Arithmetic.
Your Appointments
the World.
Because they do not have a dedicated
relational data-base manager that can
quickly direct massive amounts of data,
other programs simply can't do what
OPEN ACCESS can. Some don’t have a
communications program, others no
dedicated word processor. None have a
time management program.
fhifmutmC «, n
CctUMUHtcaflbfts
\ Word
Pk0C<S5/AJ
There’s just one conclusion: At $595?
OPEN ACCESS can do more for you than
any other comparable business program
on the market. Bar none. But the only
way for you to be convinced is for you
to see OPEN ACCESS work its magic on
your work load. So call your local
software dealer today, or call us at SPI,
at 619-450-1526.
* Introductory price
SOirwARI (HOOu'cTS INTERNATIONAL |
WORD PROCESSING— EDITOR
E XTRAORD I N AIRE1 Superior word processors
make it easy to correct typos, change words,
shuffle paragraphs and format documents.
This Is one of that breed. Use It to write
efficient memos, letters, proposals and
reports.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS— YOUR LINK WITH
THE WORLD. This program gives you access
to virtually any other computer system In the
world. Not only can you transmit and receive
reports from your colleagues, you can also
subscribe to special data banks lhat know
everything from GM's stock price to the
relative humidity In Genoa. Now that's power!
TIME MANAGEMENT-CONSERVING YOUR
MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE. This module
helps you keep track of all your appointments,
hour by hour, day In and day out. It alerts you
to standing obligations, automatically
coordinates meeting times with other busy
professionals, and lists all your associates on
a Rolodex™ -like fife.
softalk
for the IBM Person a! Computer
Features
Bridge to Clarity
A dyslexic writer describes his use of the personal computer as a
compensaiory writing tool.
Richard Wanderman . . - . . . - . * . 24
The Photon Winners
Results of April's guest contest . . 32
" Bits V Bytes'1
Luba Goy and Billy Van teach the folks in TV land.
JoAnn Levy . . 44
Socha's Toolbox
A mouse worthy keyboard buffer,
John Socha . . . . . 69
Writing To Read
Twenty- five thousand kindergartners and first -graders have a
ball beta-testing an unconventional learning theory — and learn
to read in the process.
Ron White . .76
The Analytical Ejigine
8DS7 support for the Basic compiler.
Ed Bogucz . 116
In The News
Peachtree unveils Decision Manager — and a slew of other
wares.
John Dickinson . 140
Columns
Basically Speaking, by John Dickinson . . . 87
Beginners' Corner, by Kathy Talley-Jones . . . . 126
The C Spot, by Rex Jaeschke . , * _ , , , 34
Micro Finance, by Ken Landis . * . . . . . 133
Rascal from Begin to End, by Bruce Webster
and Deirdre Wendt . . ........ 108
2 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
The Printed Word* by John Dickinson . . .
. 129
The Processed Word, by Terry Tinsley Datz
and F. Lloyd Datz .
. 48
The Right To Assemble, by Ray Duncan .
. 154
System Notebook, by Alan Boyd .
. 136
Departments
Bestsellers .
Calendar *****,*,*..*.*** .
Classified Advertising .
Contest .
Crosstalk . * . **.*** .
Marketalk News .
Marketalk Reviews .
The Patch Patch .
The Public Library, by Nelson Ford .
Questions and Answers, by Nancy Andrews *
Trade talk . * . . .
* . * . 159
. 68
66 — 67
. 4
. 8
* * . * 149
*...143
***.104
. 98
. 18
. 65
Cover phatajjraphy by Kevin MeKton. Malcolm Rodgers, and Tim Kyan-
Wtde eyes courtesy of Marin and Natalie Gulsritd.
Index to Advertisers
Access Micro _ * . 126
The Alternate Key . 147
American Programmers Guild . . , . 131
Ann Arbor . Cover 3
AST Research , , . . 6-7
Atari r * , * „ r . . . 54
ATI Training Power . . 17
Aware co . . . . 155
Basic Business Software 129
Bizcomp . * . 60-61
Blaise Computing . . . 50
Borland International . 109
Bourbaki, Inc . 105
Brady Communications ,,,,,, . 35
Business Solutions . 63
CMOS . 39
Computer Control Systems . 106
Computer Inventory Control . 73
Computer Language . * , . . 10
Computer Software Store . 87
CompuVicw . ........ . 64
Concentric Data Systems . . ... 75
Consumers Software . 56
Contemporary Computer Wear . ... 34
Continental! Software . 46
Control Data . . , _ .......... 36-37
Data Base Decisions ... _ * . Ill
Data Technology . . 33
Dayflo . 84-85
Deluxe Computer Forms . 150
Disk World , , . . 57
Bainum Dunbar . . . . . . . 62
Effective Solutions . 146
Emerald Software . , , , , . , , , r * 96
Ensign Software 114
FMJ . 90
FriendlySoft . i
Gourmet Software * _ * . 137
Great Lakes Computer
Menlo . 112-113
Microcompatibles . , . 95
Micro Rash . 125
Micro Focus . . , . . , . 100-1 01
Microsoft . * . . , . , . _ 12-13
Micro-Software Developers ...... 103
Micro Storehouse . . 127
MultiMate . 42-42
New American Library . , , 97
Peter Norton . 138
Omni International . * . „ 81
Orange Micro . . , , , . 86
Palantir Software . 41
Panamax ... * . 89
PC-Demo . , . 159
PCExpo ,,*,*,* . 27
. 115
PCsoftware
Pencept . 107
Personal CaD Systems . , . . 51
The Personal Computer
Userfest . . . * 120-121
Precision Data Products _ . . . . , 145
Prentice-Hall . . . 92-93
Prentice-Hall /Lumen Software . . * , 110
. 11,23
... 94
. 135
. ,16
. 48
. 139
Peripherals . , . . .
. 91
SoftStyle .
. * , . . 132, 154
Harvard Associates .
_ 153
S of talk .
. . 74,118,123
H&E Computron ics .
Cover 4
Software 'n Stuff .
* . .
Hercules Computer Technology
Howard Software Services , * .
.... 15
. ... 158
Software Products
Internationa] .
. . * Cover 2-1
Human Systems Dynamics . . .
. .... 32
SoIveWare *».**,<*****
. * 130
LB. Magazette .
. 47
Stratcom Systems .
. 124
IBM Personal Computer .
, * 52-53
Strictly Soft Ware ******
. . . * . 152
Integral Quality .
. 8
SubLogic Corporation . ,
. 102
Kamerman Labs . .
. 59
Tailored Data * , * .
. . 38
Laboratory Microsystems . . , .
. ... 149
3M Company .
. 70
Lewis Lee ... * .
. 31
Tiger Electronic
. . 14
Maynard Electronics
. 83
Vertex . . .
151
MC-P Applications .
. 49
Waldenbooks .
. . . 35
Megahaus .
. 9
Walonick .
. 160
Professional Software
Pure Data .
Quadram Corporation . 21*38
Qua litas . 65
Qubie . 99
ReadiWare . . . . r . 58
Relax Technology . 40
Satellite Software International . . . , 19
Satori Software . 128
Security Microsystems
Consultants . .
Siechert & Wood Technical
Publications .
SJB Distributors . . .
Smith Micro .
So f talk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 3
softalk
(or ( ii t' / B M Pi' r > o n u l C o m p u 1 c r
Editor
Manuring Editor
Art Director
Assistant Art Director
Art AsiutaHJ
A ssocitite Editors
Neurspeak Edittyr
Copy Editor
Editorial CooJ'dirtsUor
Asst Copy Editor
Proofreaders
Contributing Editors
Assembly Language
Basic
C
Financial Modeling
Investing
Pascal
Printers
Questions ajrd Aitsiucrs
Special Assignments
Systems Software
Word Processing
Arf Production
Ad Production
SuEtalk Publishing Inc.
CfiflirmaU
Publisher
Editor-In-Chief
Senior Art Director
Associate Publisher
Operations
VP, Finance
Controller
Accounting Assistant
Circulation
Customer Service
Trial Subscriptions
Paid Subscriptions
Crai*5 Stinson
Michael Tighe
Kevin MeKeon
Malcolm Rodgers
Tim Egiin
fanlffi Bradbury,
Kalhy Tiillcy-Joncs-
lean Varvcrri
David Hunter
Cordell Cooper
Betsy Barnes
Judith Pltfltr
Harry McNeil,
Sieve Thomsen
Pay Duncan
Howard Glosser
Re* Jacschke
lack Grushcow
Ken Landis
Bruce Webster, Delrtlrc Wendl
John Dickinson
Nancy Andrews
John Socha
Alan Boyd
Terry Tinsley Date and
F. Lloyd Date
Don Robertson
Michael G. Pender
|ohn Haller
Al Tommcrvik
Margot Comstock Tommervjk
Kurt Wahlner
Mary Sue Rcnnells
\1ar|ortEL kyulman
Charibel Hilario
Duane E. Runyon
Leticia Garcia,
DhiJcr Sales
Systems
A dcErtiiing Coordinator
Advertising Coordinator
PVi’st Const Sales
East Coast Sales
M 'direst arid
Rocky Mountain
Srrles
Michd le Vignciul t - Kir schenbaum
Dcirdre Cateip Anna Gusl and,
Michelle Vigneaull-
Kirschenbaum,
Jancth Gndoy- Aguiar. Barbara
Naimoli, Josic Wallcy
Lashea Lowe
John Heitmann
Cathy Stewart
Linda McGuire Garter
Mike Aniich
Sofia Ik
7250 Laurel Canyon Boulevard
Box 7040
North Hollywood
GA 91 605
(SIB) 980-5074
Jan Ross
Paul McGinnis
Advertising Sales
690 Broadway
MawwpLUua, NY 11753
(212) 490-1023
Ted Rickard
Kevin Sullivan
Christopher Kaspar
Market /Media Associates
425 Locust Road
Wilmette, IL 60093
(212) 251 -2541
Composition by Type Works, Pasadena. California. Printing;
by Volkmuth Printers. Saint Cloud. Minnesota,
IBM and Personal Computer arc trademarks of International!
Business Machines, Armonk, New York, Compaq is a trademark
of Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, Texas. Corona is a
trademark of Corona Data Systems, Westlake Village, California
Softalk is a trademark of Sol talk Publishing Inc.
Sof talk fm the IBM Personal Computer- Volume 3, Number I
Copyright © 1954 by Softalk Publishing Inc. All rights re.vi.Tved
ISSN: 0733-2173. Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer is
published monthly by Sofia Ik Publishing Inc., 7250 Laurel Can
yon Boulevard. North Hollywood. CA 91605: telephone (SIB)
9SJ0-5U74. Second -class postage paid al North Hollywood, Cali
forma , and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Sof talk /IBM, Box 7040,
North Hollywood, CA 91605.
Subscriptions: Complimentary six- month trial subscription to
all owners of IBM Personal Computers, Compaq, or Corona com¬
puters in the USA and Canada, If you own a PC. Compaq, or
Corona but you aren't receiving So/trdk for fire IBM Persona!
Computer, send your SLrial number and mailing address to Sof¬
ia tk/ IBM Circulation, Box 7040, North Hollywood, CA 91605.
Non-POownur subscriptions: S24 per year, Please allow six to
eight weeks for processing. Softalk for fire IBM Personal Com¬
puter is totally independent of International Business Machines.
Hack issues (from |une 1932): S3,
Problems? If you haven't received your So/fnflt by the
fifteenth of the month, or if you have other problems with your
subscription, Michel I Eh Vigneault-Kirschenbaumcan help out. Cal I
(818) 980-5074 or (BOO) 621-6231-
Moving l Send new address and a recent mailing label I com
your old address to Softalk /IBM Circulation, Sox 7040, North
Hollywood, CA 93 60S: telephone (018) 980-5074. Please allow ,ix
to eight weeks for processing.
Caber Computers, of Tor-Na-Haish, Scotland, one of
Silicon Glen’s rising stars, is marketing PCjr compati¬
ble— the WeePC. As part of their selling strategy,
they’re bundling software with the machine. In addi¬
tion to some homegrown products such as McColc ,
ThistleText , and BonnieBase , they’re importing a
shipment of game cartridges from Death Valley Devel¬
opment Corp. (Desert Center, CA), in the United States.
When the first consignment of Boron Moron, which
the Scots plan to repackage as Haggis Hunt , arrives,
Angus Kinlyva, the aging foreman, insists on having
them stacked a special way: All boxes must be piled in
square pyramids, and hie number of boxes in each
pyramid must be a perfect square,
A few youngsters try to get away with laying out the
boxes singly; but Angus won’t have it. "You cannae
make a pyramid with but one box, lads!"
How many boxes were there in each pyramid? Put
the answer on a post card (along with your name, ad¬
dress, phone number, and the goods you’d like to win),
and send it to Nessie, Softalk for the IBM PC, Box
7040, North Hollywood, CA 91605-by July 17. The
prize is $100 of software from the advertisers in this
issue. If we receive more than one correct answer,
we’ll use our random number generator to choose the
victor. Ni sinn seo air sgath na sithe.
4 June 1934 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
NOW AVAILABLE
Writing and Organizing
Business and Personal Letters
Has Never Been So Easy.
A Powerful and Flexible Total Correspondence Package
LAYOUTS:
PRINTING:
COPY OR DELETE;
• User-defined letter format
• Supports over 35 popular printers.
• Global Search of Letter Files.
» Adjustable L/R and T/B margins, lines per inch.
• Automatically initializes most parallel
• Copy one letter, all letters, ora group of letters
and characters per inch.
printers.
to a new location.
• Justification on/olF.
• Accommodates special printer functions.
• Delete one letter, all letters, or a group of
m Single or double line spacing.
* Allows up to 3 parallel primers and 2
letters.
* Supports 5 "x7'\ 8tt”xl 1 ", and 8*i”xl 4" paper size.
serial printers.
* Print/Pausc and Print/Test options.
WRITING AND EDITING:
• Single keystroke operation and control.
• Complete cursor control.
• What-you-see-is-what-you-get screens.
• Auto. Word wrap and right justification
• Move, insert, delete or copy characters, words
sentences, and blocks.
• On-screen underlining (most monitors).
• Automatic letter re-format
RECALLING:
• Global Search of Letter Files,
(for user-designated 1-25 character
string)
• Recall one specific letter, all letters,
or a related group of letters.
Friendly Ware
NAMING AND FILING:
# 1 to 25 character Letter Name
m User-designated Letter LD.
Phrase (40 character “key'*
phrase from letter).
SPELL CHECKING:
• 50,000 word Master dictionary.
• User-created Auxiliary
dictionary.
m Misspelled words displayed in
context
■ Automatic dictionary, search for
alternate spellings.
• Automatic justification after
correction.
• Spell checks outside files.
IN GENERAL:
• Designed specifically for 1 to 6
page business and personal
letters,
• Smooth and fast single keystroke
operation,
• An abundance of user-defined
options, settings, formats, and
functions.
• G iv line help screens (Specific
for current option or general
tutorial).
• Backed by Friendly Ware “No
Fine Print" Lifetime Guarantee.
Friendly Writer™ with FriendlySpeller
TK
Suggested Retail Price $69.95
TWO DISKETTE PACKAGE, REQUIRES PC-DOS (1.0, 1.1, 2.01, MK MEMORY with DOS 1.0 and 1.1, OR 96K MEMORY with
DOS 2.0, ONE DISK DRIVE. ANY 30 WIDE MONITOR, ANY IBM-COMPATIBLE PRINTER. _
FriendlySoft, Inc.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS
“FriendlySoft products are available at leading hardware and software dealers worldwide”
Pickup a SixPakPlus
Introducing . . . SixPakPlus™, the retreshing new
384KB multifunction card! In response to the
changing needs of the IBM PC and PC-XT
marketplace, AST Research, Inc. is proud to
announce the latest addition to our line of multi¬
function enhancement products, the SixPakPlus!
This new product is the result of extensive
marketing research into the needs of IBM PC
users whether they have the original
64K system board, the newer 256K
system board, or the PC-XT. The
SixPakPlus has been engineered to meet these
needs at a competitive price while maintaining
AST’s high standards for quality and reliability.
The SixPak, as we like to call it, could have been
named for the six banks of RAM on it. However,
we like to think that it was named for the six
functions of the card.
r
CLOCK
calendar
The features
of the SixPak include:
memory
64K-384K
1. RAM memory starting at 64K,
user-expandable in 64K increments
to 384K. This makes the SixPak
idea! for the PC or PC-XT with a
256K system board: 384K on a
SixPak added to 256K on the sys¬
tem board yields 640K, the maxi¬
mum addressable user memory in
these systems.
2. One Serial (async) communica¬
tions port, configurable as either
COM1 or COM2, for use with serial
printers, modems, a “mouse," and
other serial devices. The serial port
has on-board jumpers for easy
management of the RS-232C lines,
simplifying the wiring of cables in
many installations.
3. One Parallel (printer) port, con¬
figurable as LPT1 or LPT2 (LPT2
or LPT3 when the IBM mono¬
chrome card is installed), for use
with the IBM/Epson and other com¬
patible printers. The port is com¬
patible with IBM diagnostics.
ASYNC
(RS232)
PORT
parallel
PORT
64K-384K-I
MEMORY
SERIAL PORT
GAME ADAPTER PORT
PARALLEL PORT
CLOCK/CALENDAR
w-' IBM is the registered trademark of international Business Machines
4. A Clock-Calendar with battery
backup, featuring an easily replace¬
able Lithium battery and a quartz-
controlled timebase for a high
degree of accuracy.
5. An optional IBM-compatible
Game Adapter port, for use with an
IBM-type joystick. In conjunction
with application programming, this
game port may be used for cursor
control, in generating graphics or
for playing games at the end of
your work day!
6. Every SixPak comes with an
AST SuperPak utility diskette which
includes SuperDrive and Super-
Spool, the most powerful disk
emulator and print spooler soft¬
ware you can get. These programs
will greatly enhance the through¬
put of your PC or PC-XT by emu¬
lating disk drive and printer access
at RAM speeds rather than the normal slower
speed of mechanical devices. SuperPak is the first
of such software to be compatible with both DOS
1.1 and DOS 2.0.
Most important of all, the SixPak comes with the
AST “Plus," AST's unsurpassed reputation for
quality, reliability, after-the-sale support, and
overall design excellence that gives our products
the best price/performance ratio in the industry1
Hence the name, SixPakPlus!
AST products are available from ComputerLand, Entre', ComputerMart, and
selected dealers wo nd wide Call factory if your dealer does no? have the AST
products you want
GAME
PORT
R€S€RRCH INC.
2121 Alton Avenue
Irvine, California 92714
(714) 863-1333* TLX 753699 ASTR UR
Dealer Inquiries Welcome
L
IS
i ;
II
FOR THE
INI PERSONAL
THE PREMIER LANGUAGE
OF ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE FOR
YOUR IBM PC. .
■ DATATYPES
Lists and Symbols
Unlimited Precision Integers
Floating Point Numbers
Character Strings
Multidimensional Arrays
Files
Machine Language Code
■ MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Full Memory Space Supported
Dynamic Allocation
Compacting Garbage Collector
■ FUNCTION TYPES
EXPR/FEXPR/MACRO
Machine Language Primitives
Over 190 Primitive Functions
■ 10 SUPPORT
Multiple Display Windows
Cursor Control
All Function Keys Supported
Read and Splice Macros
Disk Files
■ POWERFUL ERROR RECOVERY
■ 8087 SUPPORT
■ COLOR GRAPHICS
■ LISP LIBRARY
Structured Programming Macros
Editor and Formatter
Package Support
Debugging Functions
.OBJ File Loader
■ RUNS UNDER PC-DOS 1.1 or 2.0
_ IQLISP _
5V4" Diskette
and Manual _ $175.00
Manual Only _ $ 30.00
J q Integral Quality
P.O.Box 31970
Seattle, Washington 98103-0070
(206) 527-2918
Washington State residents add sales tax.
VISA and MASTERCARD accepted.
Shipping included for prepaid orders.
Crosstalk
More Help for the Handicapped
In the March 1984 Softalk yoq published a let¬
ter from Robert A. Hurlbert, a handicapped
individual who experiences difficulty with the
multiple-key combinations required to operate
the IBM PC. In late 1982 I developed a key¬
board utility, Newkeys, that was designed to
overcome the layout peculiarities of the PCs
keyboard. While I was developing that utility,
I was contacted by the computer department
at the University of West Florida. They had a
handicapped student who was only able to
press a single key at a time. The program I had
developed was adapted to help this student use
the PC. The adapted version changes the con¬
trol, alt, and both shift keys into toggle-type
switches similar to the num lock and caps lock
keys. This allowed full use of the PC by an in¬
dividual who could only press one key at a
time. It does, however, require that the indi¬
vidual remember the state of these keys.
I will supply the version of Newkeys
adapted for the handicapped to handicapped
individuals if they will send a disk and $2 to
cover postage to 1021 Moores Mill Road, Au¬
burn, AL 36830. Please include a simple state¬
ment as to the nature of the handicap, as this
will help me with the IRS.
Charles R. Bisbee III, Auburn, AL
Parity Check 1 Problems — and Solutions
I am responding to John Helle of Chesterfield,
Missouri, who wrote in the March Softalk that
he had parity check 1 problems.
I had the same problem and have found a
solution. When the problem started, I also
took my machine to the local dealer, and they
couldn't find the problem. Later that same day,
a friend said I should check my boards for
memory chip "creep." I did, and several chips
were quite loose. Dealers, it seems, don't nec¬
essarily check for chip creep. Once the chips
were tightened, I no longer had any parity
check 1 problems.
I keep my PC in a moderately cold room.
Using the computer warmed the boards and
caused them to expand; the intervening cold
periods caused the boards to contract. I find
keeping the computer room between 50 and 55
degrees helps avoid the expansion-and-con-
traction problem. Other PC users in my area
have had Mr. Helle's problem, and this solu¬
tion has worked for them.
Dirk Willem Dijkerman, Groton, NY
I have recently recovered from several days of
being down with a parity check 1. The error
was always generated when I tried to run a cus¬
tom-made program that my company sup¬
plied. The program had been running properly
for seven months, and then one day all I got
was parity check 1. The home office analyst
told me it was a keyboard problem. I spent
some time with our dealer's service technician,
and he couldn't find a hardware problem. He
suggested I recopy all the data to my hard disk.
I retyped the batch file with the echo on so I
could follow the order of the programs being
run, and this allowed me to see which program
caused the error. I finally isolated the program
that always generated the parity check error
and solved the problem by recopying the pro¬
gram to my hard disk. I have had no problem
with this error since then.
I don't know the source of the error but evi¬
dently something caused part of one program
to be destroyed or to misf unction. My advice
is don't be afraid to ask lots of questions and
always recheck your software.
Dilworth C. Brinton, Jr., Mesa, AZ
I don't know if John Helle has an AST board or
is using their print spooler, but I had a similar
problem and was assured that I had a bad chip
by the dealer's service personnel and assorted
local hackers.
Suspecting that the parity check error was
associated with the spooler, I obtained a new
spooler (version 4.0) from AST and haven't
seen a parity error since installing it.
David M. Greene, Stamford, CT
When I first started using my system, I was in
the middle of an advanced Pascal course and
was using the p-System. I already had the ma¬
jority of my then-current assignment comple¬
ted on the school's Apple, and I could hardly
wait to convert to the PC.
I spent many hours keying in the program
(a text processor), and my system would be up
for six or seven hours straight. Somewhere in
the four to five hour region, I would start get¬
ting parity check messages at the end of a com¬
piler list-writing operation. I first believed the
errors to be hardware-related and, having a
terrible case of the New User Scareds,
promptly took my system back to the dealer.
The technician confirmed my own diagno¬
sis that there was no fault. A call to Boca Raton
confirmed this and yielded this interesting tid¬
bit: Some new systems with the 256K mother¬
boards may not recognize the game adapter, if
one is attached, and the diagnostics routines
8 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
competitively-priced thatwork together
Data Management <g« mQre are less expe
or IBMHCX? ®end^nual, that do not tea
use and °^ d Gobble-do-gook.
course in Ad led information befor
Want more deta e o.read broCh,
of a good soft wart
computer in the first pl<
ge and the capacity of tni
3er the lot. Worse: High
etter performance.
kc a choice? _
vour favorite comi
-harder to
The performance
reason V°b ^
programs shoe
The price
market vary al
necessarily me<
How d° y°u
like thisone'putmany of them
" prartarr;sut tneno, computer stote^n
S^pr^rS«-rar^
fe^E***" to compere us,
COmCcanm*e computer ££*£*!?£
we c + uni{r favorite computer rjqm
Program. Brand 1
WAKE
CA 92121/(619)
.RATION/5703 Oberiin
megahaus
may not find the adapter either.
In pursuit of the parity gremlin, the techni¬
cian and I swapped the motherboard in my
system for a new one and installed all my
adapter cards in a different system. That took
both systems out, with persistent parity errors.
The fix was a matter of checking the slots in the
motherboard and ensuring that all adapters,
and particularly the game adapter, were well
seated and that we had made proper contact
on all slot connections. Having done that, and
a what-the-heck-let's-clean-the-motherboard-
too, exit parity check messages, stage left.
The cause of the parity check errors7 Not
too sure.
The fix7 Tighten connections to adapters,
and if the diagnostic routines fail to detect the
game adapter(s), make the correction when
you get the diagnostic routine's message con¬
cerning its findings. According to Boca Raton,
there had been systems that for unknown rea¬
sons absolutely refused to acknowledge the
game adapter, ultimately requiring the replace¬
ment of the system board.
Now I only get parity error messages under
the p-System, and only when I type ahead
from the command level, quit the editor, up¬
date the file, and run or compile the workfile.
At last!
The first magazine dedicated
to computer languages.
YES! Start my charter subscription with the pre¬
mier issue of COMPUTER LANGUAGE. My 1 year
charter subscription is just $19.95, a $15 savings
under the single copy price. Guarantee: I can
cancel my subscription at any time for a full refund.
□ $19.95 □ Bill me.
Payment Enclosed
Name
Address
2443 Fillmore Street
Suite *346
San Francisco. CA 94115
Send to:
COMPUTER
LANGUAGE
Your source for the latest
technical skills and
methods used by software
specialists.
Written for people who write serious code.
COMPUTER LANGUAGE will cover major develop¬
ments in the software design field, from theory to
Implementation. COMPUTER LANGUAGE will focus
on the most important and useful language and
software design information available in the
fast moving microcomputer industry.
A Magazine Written for the Person Who
Takes Computing Seriously.
We're talking about you — the experi¬
enced software author, programmer, or
engineer who routinely programs in two
r more high-level languages. A per¬
son who understands the creative
nature of programming and appre¬
ciates the beauty of efficient code
in action.
COMPUTER LANGUAGE Will
Constantly Challenge Your
Abilities.
The foremost industry experts will discuss:
« Algorithmic Approaches to Problem SoMng
• Language Portability Features
• Compiler Designs
• Useful Utilities
• Artificial Intelligence
• Editors
• New Language Syntax
• Telecommunications
• Language Selection Criteria
• Marketing Your Own Software
• Critical Software and Hardware Reviews
Pius, columnists and reader forums will put you
in touch with the latest developments in the field.
Apparently the version IV.O compiler attempts
to append leftover or typeahead commands
from the command buffer onto the end of the
code file. In any event, I still get consistent
CRC parity errors in the form of bad block
messages, usually placed near the end of the
code file. This requires scrapping the code file,
examining the bad block(s), and fixing them.
The parity error rate is worsened if I use a com¬
piler directive to write the output listing to
disk — the error will always occur if I use this
kind of directive or type ahead.
I find that if I don't type ahead when quit¬
ting the editor, updating the work file, and run¬
ning the program, or when compiling the
code, I don't get the CRC parity errors. If I let
the system complete the commands before is¬
suing another, I won't run into the CRC parity
errors.
F. L. McClellan, Santee, CA
Why APL?
Since first receiving Softalk about a year ago, I
looked forward to the day when you would do
an article on APL. Now that you have done
such an article ('APL: A Pretty strange-look-
ing Language," by Bruce Filbeck, March 1984),
I am disappointed that the author did not com¬
pletely do his homework and did not give a
clear picture of APL, why it was created, who
uses it, and for what reasons it is used.
To correct a few omissions: APL was devel¬
oped by a mathematician named Ken Iverson
as an alternative notation to the one we regu¬
larly use in algebra. The outcome of his and
others' labor was a language that allowed alge¬
bra to be expressed in a consistent, syntactical
way, as opposed to the way we learned to ex¬
press algebra. For example, two plus two and
two to the power of two have very different
syntaxes. There are schools that use APL to
teach algebra and calculus, as there are text¬
books to assist that instruction.
In the world of computer programming,
people who need fast results primarily use APL
because programming is generally 75 percent
faster with APL than with most other sequen¬
tial languages. Financial analysts, oil analysts,
and policy planners look very favorably on
APL because of these attributes.
The only other criticism I have of your arti¬
cle is that you mistakenly mention IBM as "the
most prominent provider" of APL for the PC.
STSC has the most widely accepted APL for
the PC, and it has been on the market longer
than both IBM's and Watsoft's versions.
Gregory Schwartz, Philadelphia, PA
Contest Comment
Great magazine, but I'm tired of waiting for a
challenging contest for programmers.
Here's a suggestion. Ask your readers to
write a Basic program that creates an ASCII
file copy of itself. Exactly! The only rule is that
10 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
An Industry First in Word Processing Software:
WordPlus-PC featuring the BOSS .
Word processing so smart
it can even spell 100,000 words.
Meet the BOSS. WordPlus-PC's incredible
new Built-in On-line Spelling System.
WORD PROCESSING AND SPELLING COMBINED:
WordPius-PC featuring the 'BOSS"
is a whole new technology in word
processing software. Finally, the most
powerful word processing capabilities
have been combined with a built-in
electronic spelling system which not
only checks your spelling but also
corrects your spelling.
The "BOSS ', an acronym for Built-in
On-line Spelling System, eliminates
embarrassing spelling errors in your
letters and stops time consuming trips
to the dictionary.
But WordPlus-PC featuring The
'BOSS' will do far more than just
check and correct your spelling. Its
been designed to be exceptionally easy
to use and yet contain all the powerful
features you expect and more. Like
built-in mail merge for personalized
form letters, invoice generation and
the ability to merge information cre¬
ated by most other popular programs
such as l -2-3™ and dBASE IIP1 And if
you have a question Just press the
HELP key to get back on track.
You can also print bar graphs and
other charts,* * easily move columns,
scroll horizontally execute global
search and replace, boilerplate text,
and even print proportionally spaced
on selected printers. And Word Flu s-FC
is compatible with virtually all popular
letter-quality and dot matrix printers.
"With 90,000+ word standard dictionary
and ability for a user to add over 10,000
'custom ' words.
HERE’S HOW THE BOSS WORKS FOR YOU:
At the touch of a button, virtually any¬
time during typing or after the creation of
a document, The BOSS" locates and
highlights misspelled words on your
screen. The "BOSS' can even check the
spelling of a word directly after it's been
typed in.
When a word is misspelled, the user can
ask The BOSS' for suggestions as to how
to correctly spell the word. With only one
keystroke. The "BOSS' will display, in a
dynamic on-screen window, up to eighL
spelling suggestions in the order of proba¬
ble phonetic correctness.
IT CORRECTS
TiihiiiiK you Tbi1 your interest in W'
acronym For UordP lus^PC s new Bw
Mdkc* other word I'fOGtttSDki ohsoli
atitoadUcd lly' corrects any (niss|M
new techno logyj&nd its Iruai PruL
w isspe I \ i ny , it off ers (in option
And The "BOSS" Auto Correct feature
enables users to "fix" these misspelled
words directly in text with a single key¬
stroke. The BOSS" is a total spelling sys¬
tem that Checks, Suggests, and Corrects
your Spelling, All built-in.
THE TOTAL WORD PROCESSING SOLUTION — PLUS ALL THE HELP YOU’LL NEED.
With over 70,000 word processors in
use worldwide. Professional Software,
Inc. has designed WordPlus-PC to con
tain all the powerful features you
expect — and to be the easiest word
processor to use anywhere. But there
will always be questions. That's why
Professional Software has an entire
bank of riation-wide TOLL FREE
customer HELP lines to support our
registered users. This service is avail
able at rio Charge during die 90 days
following the receipt of your registered
users card.
Demand to see the BOSS in person
Visit your local professional computer
deafer or call us toll free for the deafer
nearest you. Once you witness the
BOSS in action, you'll see that all other
word processors have become totally
obsolete.
Demand to see the “BOSS” today! Call us toll free, 1-800-343-4074.
Professional Software, Inc.
51 Fremont Street, Pteedham. MA 02194 Telephone (617) 444-5224 Telex 951579
flow Available for IBM-PC and Compatibles, DEC Rainbow, T1 Professional, and Victor 9000.
Dealer, distributor OEM manufacturer, and international inquiries are invited.
WordPlus-PC arid The 1 DOitf art: trademarks ol triofessiodal Software Ific.
] -2-3 is a trademark of l-otus Development Corp.. clfiASC II is a trademark nf AshtonTate
SpectficaUnris arc subject to chanyr without rtoUcc-
WordFlusT’C was- designed and written by Andrea Escalldn.
* "Wffh IBM dot matrix and Diablo COO ECS printer
bar arajj+s arid other churLs can be printed inside text.
A lot of electronic spreadsheets just can’t cover your needs.
They don’t go far enough.
They’re unable to work like you or adapt to the way you
think.
Time for Microsoft
Multiplan® the high energy
spread. A spreadsheet
with more workspace
than the other
leading spread.
Full of high
performance
capabilities
for your IBM
PC, PC XT PC jr or
other MS 'DOS microcomputer
Multiplan loves you as you are.
Other spreadsheets force you to learn how they think.
Multiplan leams how you think. It remembers the way you
work. Anticipates frequent commands. Even offers sugges¬
tions on spreadsheet set-up.
Commands are in English. So are formulas. Instead of
typing mysterious coordinates like H54~L73 =BK154, you
can simply name worksheet areas: Sales - Costs = Profit.
that spreads too thin.
Multiplan can link information in different spreadsheets.
When you make a change on one, every related one
is changed.
Multiplan has optional Multiplan Application Programs
that work with you to design and build custom spread-
3H sheets for Budget Analysis, Financial Statement
m Analysis or Cash Planning in minutes. Not hours. Or days
The trained mouse*
Multiplan has an optional Mouse. C* A
A handy little critter that flies _
through Multiplan so easily you barely have to lift a finger
to select and execute commands. Small wonder Microsoft
gets more performance out of a spreadsheet. We designed
MICROSOFT. ’ll T ’p, T. / "1^ | . 1
The High Performance Software that tells the IBM PC hOW tO think.
And our BASIC is the language spoken by nine out of ten
microcomputers worldwide.
To get the best spread call 800-426-9400 ( in Washington
State call 206-828-8088)
for die name of your
nearest Microsoft
dealer. Now featuring
Multiplan at a
reduced price: $195.
Sucpr>red list price shown for Multi: j
Microsoft ar*i Multiplan are registered trademark* JiifJ MS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
IBM is a registered iradetnnrk of Intemani inn) Machines Corporation
the program cannot read any input files.
I promise not to enter or tell anyone the
answer.
John Mudd, Casselberry, FL
Nice idea, but the contest judges would go
crazy trying to pick the winners— imagine in¬
putting several hundred Basic programs; we
couldn't just take your word that the program
ran, Got the idea? How about this months
Bide a Wee Contest to challenge you? And if
that doesn't stimulate you , we were thinking of
having readers send in C programs to cure can¬
cer or one-line Basic programs promoting
world peace or. . . .
Turtle Racing
Mark Bridger did an excellent job reviewing
the four commercial versions of Logo available
for the IBM PC. There was, however, one very
glaring error. If the best that Logo could do on
the PC was to address on 192K, there would be
no reason for it to exist— all that horsepower
with no place to go. Both Dr. Logo and IBM
Logo can provide all the power and workspace
one could want by tapping the potential of
fixed disk systems. See page 1-24 in the IBM
Logo manual and the preliminary information
supplied with Dr, Logo to see how hard disks
can be used. Both Dr. Logo and IBM Logo will
use up to 256K of installed memory.
PC Logo is, indeed, limited to 12SK maxi¬
mum. It reminds me of my 1979 Trans Am: 400
cubic inches, 220 horsepower, with 130 mph
laps on a road-racing course. But other than
the race track, there's just no way to use that
performance. PC Logo has provided some ex¬
cellent features, but it's sort of like giving me a
Trans Am to drive during rush hour on a Los
Angeles freeway
James H. Muller
President, Young Peoples' Logo Associa tion
Richardson, TX
The Great Escape
There's an apparently universal belief out there
that one must go to great lengths (such as using
Basic or the DOS prompt command) to embed
the escape character in a DOS file.
In DOS 2, the much-maligned Edlin line ed¬
itor actually gives us a way— shall we call it a
meta-escape command? — to enter control
characters without executing them. The magic
command is control-V. To quote the DOS 2,0
manual (page 7-11): "To enter a control char¬
acter, press control-V, then enter the desired
control character in upper case. For example,
the sequence control-V followed by Z gener¬
ates the control character controbZ."
And it works, too. The combination to en¬
ter the escape character is control-V followed
by [ (the left square bracket). The screen will
show AV( when you enter it, but if you list the
file after you've closed it, you'll see a[, which is
the control-key version of the ASCII character
27 (decimal), otherwise known as escape! By
the way, one place you can find out which con¬
trol key combinations correspond with which
ASCII codes is in the IBM Technical Reference
manual in the ''Keyboard Encoding and Us¬
age" section; see also Appendix C, "Of Char¬
acters, Keystrokes, and Color,"
Unfortunately the control-V method
doesn't work in Command.com, so you can't
use it if you're creating a file with copy com.
Happy escaping!
Klause Krause, Santa Clara, CA
See Junes " System Notebook" for more about
using the prompt command to embed the es¬
cape character
Xy Write II
The review of Xy Write U in the March "Proc¬
essed Word" left me with an uneasy feeling.
I've been using this word processor for several
months and am impressed by its excellence; it's
a program that makes sense. Its structure is
logical and its presentation dean. It's easy to
use once learned, and it's fast and flexible.
However, my overall impression from the
review is that although the Datzes point out
several of the strengths and useful features of
XyWrite II, they were projecting an unneces¬
sarily negative attitude toward the program.
They overemphasized some minor flaws and
inconsistencies in the program and criticized it
for not having features that some mythical,
ideal word processor has.
For example, the Datzes harped on the lack
of page definition in XyWrite files. This criti¬
cism isn't relative to the XyWrite system,
which treats the document— which can consist
of more than one file and even more than one
disk— as the working unit. Page definition is
added when needed as part of the formatting
and printing process. At that point the user can
review or print a specific page or pages.
I also take exception to their implication
that XyWrite is too technical and that its lack
of menus and prompts detracts from its value.
1 think that many of us are educated and capa¬
ble and prefer the flexibility and greater
efficiency of command-oriented systems. I also
think that well-written, well -organized docu¬
mentation that provides conceptual orienta¬
tion and a complete and accurate set of rules
for the operation of the software is more im¬
portant than help screens and tutorials.
Diana Herron, San Diego, CA
The Datzes reply; Bey, we re on your side, On
the whole , our review of XyWrite 11 was very
positive. However, no program can please eve¬
ryone all the time r and people who like their
software with a lot of menus and prompts irri/l
probably be happier with another program ,
OWGE5
Guide the caterpillar
thru the forest maze
but beware of the
monster insectsi
Changes — a maze
game like none
other: 4 scrolling
mazes, changing paths.
Phone orders accepted.
Charge to VISA
or MASTERCARD $34,95
SCREEN t
SCREEN 5
SCREEN 3
IBM Personal Computer and jr
ere trademarks of International
Business Machines Corp,
TtGE!\VMOn j TIGER ELECTRONICS,
909 Orchard, Mundelein, I L 60060, 312-949-6666
14 June 1984 So [talk for the IBM Personal Computer
The new HERCULES
Color Card *
gives you the
parallel port
IBM forgot-for *1 more.
S2^
And it fits into the XT’s short slot.
The new Hercules Color Card gives you these five important
features in a color graphics card.
1. A parallel printer port. If you buy IBM's color card, you
won’t get a parallel port for a printer. Ugh. You’ve just wasted a
valuable slot for an extra printer card.
2. It’s short. Our new Color Card uses advanced gate array
technology to reduce the chip count by 30 and use less than half the
board space IBM does. Which makes the new Hercules Color Card
perfect for the short slot in an XT.
3. Fully IBM compatible. Any program that runs on IBM’s
color card will run on the new Hercules Color Card. With RGB or
composite video, any IBM compatible monitor will work too.
4. Hercules Graphics Card compatible. If you have a Hercules
Graphics Card (model GB101 or later), or plan to buy one, an
ingenious software switch on our new Color Card allows both cards
to be kept in the system at the same time.
5. Low price. At a suggested list price of $245, the new
Hercules Color Card has all these features for only $1 more than
IBM’s color card.
Call for our free information kit. See why the
company that made the first graphics card for
the IBM PC still makes the best.
Hercules. We’re
strong on graphics.
800 255 5550 Ext. 424
Add rtss : H t*riru ! es, iaiiO N ] nth Si . Fierke Eey, t rA H-l 7 U J P h : ’I I o o-l 0 Te le jc; 75 11 J&5 Feat u res : 2 ye: i r u arra n ty Forei pfn dl^trtbu Ion:
Com pu serv eVC’anu da ; Krfte^U.K,; Compute 2QWW, Gtrnnmy; Edisuft' France; Source Ware/ A ustriilifi.TrademarksiyOwTierii: Hercules Herat le.
CrijnptUer Technology; I ft JR Intern at ion til Business Machines.
This price comparison is based on the Suggested List Price as of 2 22.84 for the IBM Color Graphics Adaptor
As for the things we criticized , Xy Write II-
plusr XyQuest 5 rtruj, enhanced version of Xy-
Write If, takes care of most of them — including
the lack of page-break indicators.
Beginner Horror Stories
I was aghast at reading in the March "Begin¬
ners' Corner" that you are advocating the
"simple" and "easy" diskcopy command to be¬
ginners, This command is so simple and easy
that users can blank out their serialized master
disks quicker than they can blink an eye, only
to face expensive reloading fees and weeks of
downtime* Please pass on to your readers the
other side of this DOS controversy along with
the following horror stories*
Horror Story 1 concerns a 800-Software
customer who got WordStar for his PC* The
program comes on two disks, and he knew he
was supposed to wind up with all files on one
disk. He put the master i-of-2 in drive A and 2-
of-2 in B and typed dtskcopy A: B:t thereby
replacing the information on B with the infor¬
mation on A* Cost* 5150 to reload master disk
two-of-two.
Horror Story 2 concerns someone who got
three masters in a program and wanted to
make straight copies. He carefully put the mas¬
ter in A, a blank disk in B, and typed diskcopy
B*\ at which point the program transferred the
entire blank disk in B to A.
Now, instead of doing something simple
like check the directory he did a chkdsk on the
two disks — the message came back that both
disks were exactly the same* "Wonderful! ' he
cried, and then did exactly the same operation
on disks 2 and 3, Cost: 5150 x 3 — $450 to re¬
load three masters*
Part of the problem here is that there are no
messages connected with diskcopy proce¬
dures. If you copy files the recommended way,
in file-copy mode, you see the name of each file
as it's being copied* But diskcopy with its en¬
tire-disk approach, just copies without com¬
ment*
Also, most master disks (except games and
some copy-protected programs) come without
a system track installed* Therefore, if you use
diskcopy, you still won't have any system
tracks, and the disk still won't boot* You have
to reformat and copy again*
If you have a double-sided drive and copy a
single-sided master disk—which almost every
master is! — your copy will also be single¬
sided, and you'll lose half your storage space*
The only way to get full storage space is to re¬
format and recopy
A final reason to eschew diskcopy com¬
mands has to do with data disks* In all the pre¬
vious examples we've been talking about
master program disks. But if you have a data
disk to which you've been adding and deleting*
it's likely that a single file is scattered over five
to ten very different locations on the disk* If
you diskcopy your data disk, the information
will wind up as scattered on the copy as it is on
the master* Do a file copy, however, and the
info will be picked up from the scattered loca¬
tions and placed sequentially in your new
copy* The copy will be better than the original,
and faster, too.
A final horror story: A customer recently
called me to say something was wrong with his
new program* While troubleshooting, 1 found
that he was trying to install his master disk* 1
explained to him that these masters are never
used for anything except making copies* J
asked why he hadn't made a copy first, and he
fold me that he wanted to see if it worked be¬
fore he made backups.
I explained to him that not only are there no
system tracks on master disks, but that he
could erase or otherwise mess up the master
and have to pay 550 to 5150 to get it reloaded
at the factory* "That's no problem," he told
me* "I have a write-protect tab on the nutch* '
"And this is the disk you were trying to in¬
stall?'' i asked him* Yup. He couldn't tell me
how he thought the computer could write the
installation information on the disk with the
tab on.
Dan Hawkmoon Alford, Berkeley, CA A
CONTEST
WINNERS
Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to climb
Everest, but C* Michele Ray, of Indianapolis,
Indiana, will go down in history as the winner
of the Abominable Contest.
The computing hours spent by Sofia Ik
readers on this problem probably surpassed
the efforts of the Japanese in their quest for the
fifth generation. Some of the entries included
equations worthy of a freshman calculus class.
The programmers used every imaginable lan¬
guage; recognizable were Pascal, C* Logo,
Fortran, assembly, dBase //, and, of course*
Basic.
Wrong answers ranged from 1 Yowling Yeti
cartridge to 9,300,595 of them* That's a lot
more cartridges than there are PCjrs, although
maybe that reader figured the folks at Anna¬
purna are as optimistic as IBM.
Michele's correct answer of 3,121 was
achieved without the use of a computer, pro¬
grammable calculator, slide rule, or abacus.
Though she doesn't remember exactly how she
found the solution, she claims to have relied
primarily on trial and error* if it worked for
Edison with the electric light, well, wThy not? A
SuperTabs
JL for the IBM Personal Computer
Find Information Fast In Your IBM
DOS and BASIC Manuals
These 16 mylar- reinforced tab dividers are loaded with information
that summarizes each section of your manual .
They provide the only practical way to find the information you need
in your IBM DOS and BASIC manuals.
SuperTabs end the frustrations
of trying to locate
the important
information
you need*
[HM n *i irjJtnutrk ^OntCfiUllorVll NuHrtrss SUt N r>e- ttirp
SuperTabs
are available for 19-95
at computer and software
stores nationwide, or from Sie chert & Wood Technical Publications,
844 Colorado Blvd., Suite 201, Los Angeles, CA 90041* Telephone
818/449^1276* VISA, Mastercard, or check accepted* California residents
please add sales tax* Please specify DOS 1*0/1* 1, DOS 2.0. or DOS 2,1 If
you are not completely satisfied with SuperTabs r return them fora full
refund*
5
6
c
n
C,
t/i
u
3
s
r*L
5
r*
' — s
Z
T
' — s
£
QG
n
c
16 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
rHnancfa| Planning
DMuUiplan
□SupttCak
□VislCak
□i\!L'fc.in Calc
OEas^Hamer
□MictopLin
DTfc Solver
□ tairiCak:
ttease rush ine All
Training Hjwpr™
Yoiir first time was scary
But you caught on fast, with a little
support from someone you trusted.
Remember?
That’s exactly the way ATI
teaches you to use your computer
and software.
Insert the disk, and you’re
practicing real computer skills
immediately The AH program
guides you, step by step, simulat¬
ing die actual program.
Our mediod is faster be¬
cause you learn by doing, interact¬
ing with the screen. Our unique
split screen approach lets you
learn in half the time of any other training program. That’s why we’re
the choice for many Fortune 500 companies and have sold over 100,000
programs to date.
ATI has training disks and handbooks for most of the
popular software programs and computers.
Before you know it, using your computer will be as
natural as riding a bike. Ask for ATI at your computer store. Or, use
this coupon to order by mail.
5Si
rams, ai
fix (his software
InLcynEfxJ Software
□ Lorn s|.2A
□SupeiCale1
tialab&C Management
. .dPAvr- ii
□Easyfllei
TSbrd Procfxsing
□mmlStar
□EattftHdlttr II
□TerfLtl VrTi[(_T
□Spellbinder
□Microsoft Word
□ Mnli Mint
pRTgnmminB;
□BASIC
DAfTtESOFT BASIC
Accounting
□BP? Gen, Acct.
Q Peachtree General
LtrjgtT*
□Fwdiwve Accounts
Rtvuivabfe*
□ Peachtree Accounts
Payable*
’PC (MS) EX*
formats only.
Operating
□ PC LX*
□MS LX*
OCPM
Htw 10 Ut
□ Hbw to Use Your IBM K,
□How to lAtSfflif COMPAQ
□How to Lise iC \w
□How io Use Your
Tl Pro&.’wikjinal
□I low to LA Yotur Macintosh
□How to LA Your Apple lie
STI
My computer uses
□PC IX* □ XENIX
□MS IX* DAPPLE II OVM
□ OVM DAPPLE lie Hi) coL
Please eudnse oitJt plus f2.50 tor domestic shipping, or JlA for oienw.Lv
(Qtliftimia residL'nLv :idd 6.9SS >
Name
PhrtOf C
Cjiv . .......
suit
Zip
M? IJ order form to .
Software? Ihiining Company
A Div istonofxn
lJfc.tf Beatrice street
LOs Angt-les. CA 90U66
riralera
Call for sales kit
£2H)!m 1129
(800) 42l-4fi27
for rush orders call:
(213)823-1129
CS00T421-4827,
AH Money Back Guarantee
£l"VOuVe iuji aifnpletefy ,$&-
isfSed with how fast you Lt-jm
wilhATI InterJcTiveTrairt
in a ftwer Programs, sitiiply
return within ? days for full
purchase refund.
Learn to use
your computer the
way you learned
to ride a bike.
I
The Ubftlrtfl n^nes an: Uilnlwr* of rile Mtwin# GqjetoanitS: AH IblDlng ftw-rt. of American 'J nd mine |r
"■ ‘ ----- - - 1 MufcjpUi. Of MlCtOytfcj ctBAS
. _ , r . . . p I . -..SupoCak:. of ScCtHIS: VtfrOik:. of\A&G«|X; Mk TOpha r-Mlunx LixiralOrtei; fVstji CSjk FAxH Jtrc* So4tUraftr,
TraMf jj, wwisf iVhyinr of America Ihoirtiryi tnLernXkK’KiJ: Spciljiixtci: oJ Uwisolt! Poftct Airik-r. and FtrleiA Oak-, trf Verfax Software; Ijjuuv of Lutuv Com}**], <
t f, rod l^yFbm, uf EnSjmwrioo Unfintiiud Software; MS-riCS, V
... IniTO . . ■ _ l.r . .......... . . .
J . _ . Ki^crkm, *rt' Hyperion; Mkt< »uX of MtrnWtfL Mufecitmu.', ofSoftwonl %3fcms Ik1 Ansi
if Compaq ,l£ j to of IBM; 'n of Tl*.ls
C 1964 Am ert< , -UT'chd nln^ IruerpH* ntj
(Questions
Vc&answerc
1 Wl by Nancy Andrews ^ #
Q* In the December 1983 "Boards and Buses/' Kevin Goldstein
* suggested a way to have the computer look for the Com¬
mand, com file on the hard disk in drive C. I have been trying without
any luck to accomplish this with the Comspec command. Goldsteins
approach, using thes/ief/ command, works perfectly; however, 1 don't
have an XX but a Tallgrass hard disk connected to my PC, When 1 boot
my computer 1 have to boot from a floppy, which then runs a device
driver that enables the hard disk. In executing the shell commands, the
computer goes to look for the Command.com hie on drive Cr but drive
C is not initialized via the device driver to make it work. I would
greatly appreciate any help you can give me with this.
Thomas G. Donovan
A I think we have an easy answer for you on this one. Perhaps if
♦ you just change the order of the commands in your Con-
hg.sys file, your problem will be solved. The statement;
device — (specify hard disk device driver]
must precede the s/ie// statement. This way your drive C will be ena¬
bled before the system looks for Command.com. If this doesn't solve
the problem, let us know.
f\+ it would be more convenient for me not to have interactive
debugging in BasicA. Is there a simple way to make Basic
proceed on to the next error without fixing the preceding error? Even
better, 1 would like a printout of each line and the error message. Is
there a way 1 could do this?
Cheryl Ellis
A# What you can do is use the Basic oh error command. At the
• beginning of your program put the line;
10 ON ERROR GOTO 1000
Then have line 1000 print the error line number and error message and
line 1001 resume program execution at the line following the line with
the error.
1000 PRINT ERL: PRINT ERR
1001 RESUME NEXT
This will work well in some situations. However, since Basic checks
syntax and executes instructions at the same time, certain errors will
definitely affect program execution and perhaps produce additional er¬
ror messages. For example, if you have an error in a statement that
controls a for loop and then resume execution at the next line— presum¬
ably the body of your for loop — you'll generate a lot of errors that you
would avoid had you fixed the for loop control statement first. So, use
on error wisely,
Q+ I Knd it very frustrating that, after the Command, com file has
# been wiped out in the high end of storage, DOS insists on
reading it back in from the disk in drive A, even though some other
drive may be the default.
I often run a RAM disk as drive C, and it's very convenient to load
my whole system disk— containing an editor, Basjc, and a number of
utilities — onto this drive and make it the default drive. But when Com¬
mand, com gets zapped from memory, 1 have to reload a DOS disk
into good ol' drive A so that DOS can satisfy itself in its own way.
I would like to know how to modify DOS to make it read Com¬
mand. com from the current drive instead of reading it in from the A
drive .
Thomas N . Deforest
DOS can be induced to read Command.com from the RAM
+ drive, and it requires only that you add two lines to the end of
your Autoexec.bat file after you have copied Command, com into
drive C,
SET COMSPEC = C: \ COMMAND.COM
COMMAND /C COMMAND
Some information about this can be found on page 10-9 of the DOS 2.0
manual. As far as we know, you can't do this with DOS 1.1. If any
readers have solved this with 1.1, please send us the info and we ll pass
it on. Otherwise, we'd recommend upgrading to 2.0; its added func¬
tions are well worth the S6G.
Q+ I have a PC and a NEC Spinwriter 3500Q printer. I bought a
• Courier 72 /Manifold thimble to use with the printer, but 1
can t get the thimble to type the Manifold type (which isn't a pitch
difference but a type difference). NEC advises me that I need a Word¬
Star patch, MicroPro advises me that changing the type is a NEC func¬
tion. Changing the pin setting on my printer results in a pitch change
but not the type change.
Second, my BP1 accounts receivable reports are continuous— no
page pauses. Sometimes my paper isn't aligned, and if l stop printing it
takes almost a page for the printer to stop, and it states on my report,
"terminated by operator" Is there a BP1 patch to effect a page pause?
1 realize these are questions that NEC, MicroPro, and BPI should
answer, but no one has given me a reply that gets me anywhere.
Karen Dyer
A# Unfortunately, we can't do much about your printer The
+ NEC 3550 ordinarily would be able to access the Manifold
type. The Q after the 3500 indicates that your printer has a Qume inter¬
face, which means that another vendor added firmware to your NEC to
make it emulate a Qume printer. Because of this, it's impossible for
NEC to tell you how to make the printer access the different type. There
is a company in California called Intec that buys and adapts NEC print¬
ers, changing them into NEC/Qumes. You might try contacting them
to see if they can help. There i$ a rumor that ComputerLands in Los
Angeles wrere selling the NEC 350OQs to customers and claiming they
were IBM-compatible and that NEC would support them, so you may
not be alone.
Your second problem is easier to solve. Apparently, to stop printing
you were using function key FI, which is intended to terminate a print¬
ing job. However, you would be better off using F7 and F9; F7 (like
WordStars p command) stops the printing operation, and F9 resumes
printing. If you use F7 and F9, you won t get the termination message
or the extra linefeeds.
Qt I want to disable the blinking cursor. It's very distracting.
Many of my friends agree. How can we make it be just a
straight, unblinking line?
S. J. Wendling
A Cursor blinking is hardwired in. There are times that we'd
# like to turn it off too, but we don't know any way to do it* So
get some Excedrin and carry on.
Q# i have some questions about the NCI version of the UCSD p-
• System (version Bl), My current memory configuration con¬
sists ot 256K achieved by adding a 192K AST board to a 64K base.
18 June 1984 Soffatk for the IBM Personal Computer
Can Your Word Processor
Keep Up With Your 100
WPM Typist?
It can if you have
WordPerfect!
Try this test. While using
your favorite word
processor, put the cursor l
in the middle of a
paragraph, turn
insert on,
and type.
Surprisingly,
very few of the
leading word
processors can keep
up with 70, 60, or even 50
words per minute. WordPerfect
keeps up easily at speeds well
above 100*.
Delays are very frustrating, and
frustration can easily lower the
quality of your writing.
Try WordPerfect.
Now. maybe this doesn’t matter
to you, because you don't type
100 or even 50 WPM. But you
still don't want to wait forever to
go to the beginning of your
document, go to page 5, save
your document, or add a
paragraph.
At SSI anything less than fast is
unacceptable. And not just
because time is money, or
because wasting time is foolish.
You’ll love it—
not only for the
features we’ve built in,
but also for the i
delays we left
out.
S3
:
* Ha set I on [csls petTormed on ;m IBM PC.
SATELLITE SOFTWARE INTERNATIONAL
288 WEST CENTER STREET. OREM, UTAH 84057 (801)224-4000 TELEX 820-618
When I reset the system, the time and date are displayed under the
NCI logo from the AST clock. How do 1 access the AST clock via a
Pascal command? Apparently, the time command uses the system
clock and does not recognize the AST clock.
When I boot the system, it would be helpful if the System. editor and
the System. compiler files were transferred to RAM automatically. Per¬
haps you know of a straightforward way to do this. It has occurred to
me that properly programmed function keys may solve this problem,
but I haven't found a way to do that yet.
Therefore, I have three questions: How do I access the AST dock
from a Pascal program? How do 1 transfer the System. editor and Sys¬
tem. compiler to RAM quickly?
Daniel G. Krivitsky
A0 You're in luck— NCI supplies an AST clock routine that can
+ be accessed through the Caller program. Include in the Uses
declaration the Clock.cal code for the AST board. Then call Procedure
CC— Get —Time. NCI says this is explained in Its Programmers' Guide
to the p-5ystem.
You can transfer the System .editor and 5ystem.com piler files to
RAM if you have at least 256K— which you do. NCI will do this auto¬
matically for you, depending on where these files are on your boot
disk. Here's what you do. Create a boot disk that has the hies you want
transferred into RAM at the beginning of the disk— so first use the Filer
to copy the editor and compiler onto a new boot disk. Then follow
these files with the N-Boot file. This tells the p-System to copy every¬
thing automatically that precedes N-Boot into RAM each time you
boot your system.
Q# [ would appreciate your help in solving a very annoying
• problem werre having with our PC. When the computer is
turned on, the pictures on the TVs in our home have a lot of static and
are snowy. This problem is very bad on our local channel 5, and to a
lesser degree on channels 9 and 12.
The computer is on its own electrical circuit, feeding directly into
the main electrical panel. The CPU is separated from the main TV an¬
tenna by an outside wall, but it is only twenty to twenty-five feet away.
The TVs on the main coaxial cable are most affected; but the condition
still exists on a portable TV that has its own antenna. Thus, I am pre¬
vented from computing when my family is viewing* Please help!
Todd S. Deutsch
A Your problem is radio frequency interference. Unfortunately,
♦ the outside wall Is no help. Standard IBM equipment should
not cause these problems, but add-ons don't necessarily meet the same
standards. Probably the interference comes from cables that are not
shielded — perhaps an unshielded printer cable; if you happen to have
removed the cover of your computer and replaced it without putting
the screws back in, that could be the problem. So if youJve tightened
the screws and don't want to replace cables, the next best solution is
some sort of surge protector — one that also offers RF noise protection.
These should be available from almost any dealer.
Q* 1 could really use some help on a problem generated by your
* magazine. I'm basically a PC novice, but I can readily appre¬
ciate the advantages of John Socha's Scrnsave utility program for sav¬
ing the monitor screen (Softalk, December 1983), Huwever, when [ run
the com program with my RGB monitor, the only character that blanks
out on my screen after three minutes is the cursor; the display remains.
[ may be doing something wrong, or the key to adapting this pro¬
gram to my co lor/ graphics system may lie somewhere in the corre¬
sponding assembly language program, but frankly the latter is Greek to
me and l don't know Greek*
Howard Tint
A# Before we had a chance to contact John Socha, we received
• another letter from Mr. Tint answering his own question. We
print his solution here, in case other readers have similar problems: "I
had neglected to report in my letter that 1 was using a USI Multidisplay
Adapter Card in my system and that lever 4 of the onboard dip switch
(S2) was set to off to prevent blanking the display during scrolling in the
80-by-25 color mode. This lever must be reset to more closely mimic
the operation of the IBM color/graphics card in order for the Scrnsave
program to work correctly. With this change everything works fine."
Q+ There are many interesting Basic programs in your maga-
• zine, but none of them explain what memory areas they are
peeking or poking into or why. F6r example, in the Basic Manual on
page 4-205 it says:
IF fPEEK(&B410) AND &H30) = &H30
THEN IBMMONO = 1
ELSE SBMMONO - 0
Is location 410 an area in the registers, such as AX or DX? Why do they
poke or peek at that location? 1 know it's to change the bits; what l
don't know is what that memory location represents.
Another example comes from foe Juhasz's "Basic Solution, " Decem¬
ber 1983.
1050 FOR KQLGR = 170 3
1060 DEF SEG: POKE &H4E, KOLOR
What is at location 4E7 Is def seg the same as def seg — 01 1 suspect these
areas represent the registers used in the Assembler but can't find any
information on the memory locations of the AX, BX, CX, DX registers,
or the stack.
Cheryl Ellis
Your first question deals with location 410. This is a location
♦ in memory, although it isn't a register like AX or DX< Loca¬
tion 410 contains the equipment-determination byte. By peeking at this
byte (and finding it with 30 to get the particular bit you need), you can
determine whether the system has a monochrome or color monitor.
The byte at location 4E contains the default foreground colon By
poking 1, 2, or 3 into this location, you can change the color of the text
printed on the screen. It is necessary to use a poke rather than Basics
co/or statement, since in the graphics mode Basic's color statement
only lets you specify the background color.
Def seg without an argument sets the segment to Basic's data seg¬
ment or variable space. It isn't the same as def seg = 0; Basic's data
segment is quite a bit higher in memory.
AX, BX, CX, and DX are among the 8088 microprocessor's regis¬
ters. They're not part of your PC's random-access or read-only mem¬
ory, so they aren't identified by numeric addresses.
Here's a letter from a reader who wants help locating a loan-amorti¬
zation program. Perhaps you can help; we're including his address so
you can correspond with him directly. He writes: "Can you or your
readers help me find a comprehensive loan-amortization program? I
would like a menu-driven program. I'd like to print customer name and
loan number as well as loan terms, i.e., loan amount, interest rate,
payment amount, and term of loan on the top of the loan schedule.
I'd like interest calculation options: normal (30/360-day), actual
(3t>5-day); payment and other options; interest only, interest-included
payment, interest added to payment; quarterly, semiannual, annual
payment options as well as monthly, balloon payments, odd days to
first payment; to print totals per calendar year; and to print payment
dates.
I have an IBM PC with 320K of RAM and two 320K disk drives.
Send information to Walter E* Ollech, President, Schuster-Campman
Abstract and Title Company, 161 East Fifth Street, Box 106r NeillsviJJe,
Wi 54456. w
20 June J9S4 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
True or False:
You Can Now Run Apple
Software in Your IBM PC.
J True. Introducing Quadlink
by Quad ram. The revolu¬
tionary enhancement board
that turns your IBM Personal
Computer into an Apple-
compatible system.
Quadlink. Simply plug
it inside your PC. press a
few keys, and instantly run
most Apple software
packages available.
Quadlink greatly enhances
your PC's capabilities.
4 True. Quadlink gives you ’
access to the largest software
library ever written. Business,
educational, and entertain¬
ment packages. Software for
any professional or home use.
This means your PC can now
do more than ever before.^
In more ways than ever 4
before.
And every Quadlink comes
with that traditional
Quadram Quality built
right in.
id Absolutely true.
Quadlink is available
at Quadram dealers
worldwide.
4 True. So visit the Quadram
dealer nearest you today and
ask to see Quadlink in action.
\ And while you’re there ask
**’ about our full line of IBM PC
enhancements, including
the popular six-function
Quad board 7 You’ll agree:
when it comes to quality
QUADLINK BY QUADRAM ' engineering and dependable
performance, Quadram
passes the test.
With Quadlink, there’s
no diskette reformatting
needed.
4 True again. With Quadlink
you'll never have to worry
about "compatibility.” Just
put your Apple diskette in
the PC drive and watch it go.
Its that easy. Like having an
Apple computer inside
your IBM. L
QUADRAM
CORPORATION
■U55 lifl'prnftliDnai Bl^l Ga
92d-6&S6 TWX fti0'?fiS.-»ST5 i QUADRAM MCR5
@ Copy rig hi 1984
Quadram Corporation
AM rights reserved
Apple and the Apple lego are
registered trademarks ol
Apple Compuler Inc.
IBM and the IBM logo are
registered 1 rede marks ol
International Business
Machines Corporation.
Our response to Ideo Video and Tabs in Shabs (January 1984) about
the IBM Professional Editor generated quite a few letters. Other readers
using the Professional Editor may find the following information
useful.
First, Robert Batten provides a solution to the color problem, but
only after first airing a few complaints about Professional Editor. "The
authors of the Professional Editor forgot the cardinal rule of software
flexibility when they assumed everyone would have a color monitor. If
you don't have one, you get an unreadable menu at the beginning of the
program and have to reset the background color after exiting — even if
you've selected the black-and-white option. A more logical approach
would be to assume everyone had a black-and-white monitor, since all
monitors are readable in this mode; then people with color tubes could
paint their words at their leisure.
"I was appalled at the lack of support I received on the background
color problem, so I assembled the entire executable image of Edit.exe,
and, with the help of the Technical Reference manual and Debug, cor¬
rected the problem.
'The following steps will guide any user through this fix. It is for the
large editor, not Edit64.exe; however, you may be able to follow this
and find a solution for Edit64 as well.
"Load DOS; place your Edit disk in drive A and a blank disk in
drive B. Log on to drive B and type:
COPY A: EDIT. EXE EDIT.FIX
You now have a copy of Edit.exe, named Edit. fix, on drive B. You need
this, since Debug will not allow you to save an exe file to disk.
"Now, put your Debug disk in drive A and type:
AjDEBUG B: EDIT. FIX
At the Debug prompt ( — ), type R to display register values. Write
down the value of CS; in my case, with 192K of memory, CS — 08F1.
"Now use the search function to find all occurrences of CD 10,
which is the video interrupt in BIOS. Type:
— S CS:08F1 6000 CD 10
(substitute the value of CS on your system for 08F1). You'll see:
08F1:5C6E
08F1:5D08
08F1:5D13 (Third occurrence is the key. Write down
this address)
08F1:5D46
08F1:5D4E
"Let's unassemble the location where the third occurrence of CD 10
was found. Type:
— U 08F1:5D13
You'll see:
08F1:5D13 CD10 INT 10
08F1:5D15 BBD21C MOV BX,lCD2
08F1:5D18 D7 XL AT
08F1:5D19 300 CMP AL,10 08F1:5D1B . .
Write down the address of the fourth line. I won't bore you with the
rest of the unassembly, since it's not important. I'll tell you, however,
that the line before INT 10 was MOV AH, OF, and this is important.
When AH = OF, interrupt 10 returns the current monitor type in AL.
Note that CMP AL,10 is used by the author to decide which type of
state to set later on. So we'll put MOV AL, 02 where CMP AL,10 is,
and this will force the eighty-column B&W state to be set. This will
work at exit as well as at the very beginning of the program. When you
use your patched version of the Editor, note that now the Prime Page
will show 2 as the preselected monitor type, and, if you wish, you can
change the monitor type to color instead. This roundabout patch
makes the program run the way it should have in the first place.
"Let's rewrite CMP AL,10. Remember the address you wrote down.
In my case it was 08F1:5D19.
— E 08F1:5D19 B0 02
Now use — U 08Fl:5Dl9 and check that the location where CMP
AL,10 was now reads
MOV AL,02
To save this mess, type W. You'll see the message: Writing £300 bytes.
Now type Q to leave Debug. Rename Edit. fix Edit.exe, type edit , and
see what happens."
Reader Thomas Grizzard points out that if you start Professional
Editor after exiting from either EasyWriter 1.1 or 1-2-3 and don't re¬
boot, the video display comes up normally and you can exit from the
editor without display problems.
Another reader, Ted Mirecki, says that you can avoid the whole
video problem by entering the command:
MODE BW
before starting the editor. He also explains the tab problem as follows:
"The Editor inserts one character (hex 09) for each tab. This isn't a
bug — it runs exactly as documented. It's also not a problem, but actu¬
ally quite desirable. Some programs, such as the DOS type command,
replace that character with as many blanks as it takes to get to the next
tab stop; other programs, such as Pascal, replace it with a single space.
However, DOS will expand to its own built-in tab stops, which are
fixed at every eight positions. The Editor's default tab stops are the
same as those in DOS, so the tabbing you get with the type command
will match what you see in the Editor only if you didn't reset the Edi¬
tor's tab stops to something other than the default. The solution is doc¬
umented on page 9-14 of the Professional Editor manual: The T line
command replaces each tab character with as many blanks as it takes to
get to the next tab stop as currently defined within the Editor. To con¬
vert all tabs to spaces throughout the file, enter 7* in the line command
space of the first text line of your file. After you save the file, its actual
contents will match what you saw on the Editor screen and will be
properly printed by any program.
"There is a penalty, however; the file will be larger because/ each
single tab character will have been replaced by many blanks, and
there's no way of reconverting the spaces back to tab characters. What
I do is save the expanded file under a new name, print the new file, then
delete it. That way the original file is kept in its compact form."
Finally, reader Michael Doob presents a way of modifying a Pascal
program to expand the tab character used by the Professional Editor.
The following program fragment contains the essentials for doing this:
CONST ESC = CHR(27); TAB = CHR(9); LF = CHR(10);
CR = CHR(13);
PAGEWIDTH = 96; PAGELENGTH = 66; TOPSPACE
= 6; BOTTOMSPACE - 6;
VAR TAB-STOPS: ARRAY [1.. PAGE WIDTH] OF
BOOLEAN;
PROCEDURE SET -TABS; VAR LINTEGER;
BEGIN FOR I := 1 TO PAGEWIDTH DO
IF (I MOD 8) = 0 (*OR WHATEVER CRITERION
YOU WANT*) THEN TAB-STOPS[I] := TRUE
ELSE TAB _STOPS[I]:= FALSE
END;
PROCEDURE INSERT -TAB;
BEGIN
REPEAT
WRITE (PRINTER/ ');
COLNUM : = COLNUM + 1
UNTIL TAB _ STOPS[ COLNUM] (*IS TRUE*)
END;
Ideas along these lines can be found in Kemigan and Plauger's book,
Programming Tools in Pascal A
22 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
WithDataPlus-PC”
Using DataPlus-PC. all your important last
minute information is literally at the tips of
your fingers. Incredibly fast and refresh’
ingly easy to learn and use, DataPlus-PC
transforms your personal computer into a
powerful “electronic filing and report sys¬
tem11 which allows you to perform a wide
range of sophisticated database functions
normally found in programs costing hun¬
dreds of dollars more
Unlike other
databases
which re¬
quire hours
upon hours o
"setup11 time,
DataPlus-PC
been carefull;
designed to a
even novice users to begin using it in a mat¬
ter of minutes. DataPlus-PC incorporates
the latest state of the art technology includ¬
ing a completely Menu Driven system
which communicates with you in easy to
understand English.
The unique Super Scan™ function
gives you the ability to search for and dis¬
play any information record in seconds,
providing you with almost instantaneous
access to your important information. And
DataPlus-PC s powerful MLG M (Mailing
Label Generator) makes the designing and
printing of time consuming mass mailings a
breeze. In addition, DataPlus-PCs built-in
Report Generator provides powerful mathe¬
matical capabilities and at lows you to pro¬
duce customized reports just the way you
want them, when you want them. And with
DataPlus-PCs integrated Memo Window™
facility, you'll have a handy 'extra text'1 area
which allows you to include remarks, extra
notes, client summaries, or other valuable
information related to each record.
With DataPlus-PCs ability to easily
interact with our best-selling WordPlus-PC '
word processing system, you can select
specific information from Data Plus- PC and
easily merge it into personalized letters,
documents, overdue notices, etc, And
DataPlus-PCs user friendly Tutorial Learn¬
ing Guide assures that even first-time users
will be using DataPlus-PCs powerful
arsenal of features right from the start.
Don't settle for less than the best. Ask
for Data PI us- PC at your local computer
dealer or call us today for the dealer nearest
you — and "let your fingers do the fifing."
DataPlus-PC is available from dealers natron
wide, with a suggested retail price of $250.
DataPlus-PC. Word Plus- PC, Super Scan. MtG.
and Memo Window are trade mar ks Of
Professional Software, fnc
DaiaPlus-PC was written and designed by
Tom Caifen, Universal Software.
Prices and specifications are sublet 10 change
witnout not ce
Professional Software, Inc.
51 Fremont Street, Needham. MA 021 94 Telephone (617) 444-5224 Telex 951 579
Now Available for IBM-PC and Compatibles, DEC Rainbow, T I Professional
Dealer, Distributor, OEM Manufacturer and International inquiries are invited
24 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Illustration by Malcolm Rodgers
BRIDGE TO CLARITY!
The Computer as Compensatory Writing Tool
Dyslexia is a label for a group of related develop¬
mental language problems having to do with read¬
ing — visual processing of language in all its symbolic
forms — and writing. The most common indicators of
these problems are the reversal and transposition of
certain letters, poor spelling, short-term memory di¬
fficulties, and weak global organization skills. Dys-
graphia, when it occurs, is usually part of a dyslexia
problem. Dysgraphia usually affects the writing and
drawing of all types of symbols, including analogical
ones.
I'm dyslexic and dysgraphic. My interest in comput¬
ers grew out of a quest to learn more about dyslexia. I
wanted to find out what was going on inside my head
that was making certain things hard.
By Richard Wanderman
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 25
As I explored the area of language-related
learning problems, the network of ideas kept
growing: the brain, neurology, problem solv¬
ing, multisensory learning models, artificial
intelligence, educational philosophy, com¬
pensatory tools, and
finally, computers as
compensatory writing
tools.
Most dyslexics have a
hard time using writing as
their primary means of
expression. Because of
their problems with spell¬
ing, organization, mem¬
ory, and logic, they tend
to find the process of
writing very slow going.
Fortunately, appropriate compensatory
tools can make the process of writing easier
and the end result more satisfactory. The
newest such tools — microcomputers and
word processing programs— change the writ¬
ing process itself, thereby making it more en¬
joyable and satisfying to people who have
developmental language problems.
The Problem. I read a line. Upon reaching
the end of it, I see that I have a problem— I
seem to have lost the beginning. So I go back
to the beginning and reread, and this time I
lose the end. Meanwhile, I may also be re¬
versing letters within words, changing their
meanings, or transposing words within a sen¬
tence, changing its meaning. When I'm writ¬
ing, something similar happens. I type a first
draft, and when I go back and reread it I dis¬
cover mistakes. So I type a second draft to
correct the mistakes I made in the first. But
when I read the second draft, I am con¬
fronted with new mistakes; in addition to
new clerical errors, which anyone might
make, there are words spelled incorrectly
that I had no problem with the first time.
And so it goes. At times, I find this combina¬
tion of problems pretty disheartening. How,
1 ask, do I manage to read and write at all7
But an amazing thing has happened since I
started writing with a computer: People who
read my computer-aided writing can't see
what my precomputer writing was like.
Computer-aided writing gives me the power
to express my ideas without having them un¬
dermined.
Initially, I was overwhelmed with just the
power of the delete key. Electronic editing
alone is worth the price of the computer. Just
being able to go back and fix the transposi¬
tions, typos, and spelling problems— even
one by one with the use of a dictionary — is
easier than rewriting the piece, which for the
dyslexic is an endless cycle.
Writing is still a struggle, but a much
more enjoyable and productive one now. Be¬
cause I can now reference my own written
ideas and build on them, I can develop my
ideas more fully. This in turn gives me a feel¬
ing of power, intelligence, and self-worth
that not only feels great but pulls more writ¬
ing out of me— a much more positive cycle.
Building Blocks. When
I was a child, my favorite
toys were blocks. Later I
made a ceramic sculpture
that was stackable and
rearrangeable (clay
blocks). I now enjoy
Logo, Rocky's Boots ,
and MacPaint because
they facilitate learning
through building (high-
tech blocks).
The building process
is an important part of what I'm exploring
here. Learning and using language is a build¬
ing process: We build words with letters, sen¬
tences with words, paragraphs with
sentences; and we build ideas by manipulat¬
ing all of these. We build ideas with other
ideas. We debug or change older ideas to
handle new ones, and we alter new ones to fit
the old. The result of this is an aggregate,
where we might or might not see traces of the
original ideas or the building process.
I'm putting this piece of writing together
by building large language/ idea structures
out of smaller ones. The computer-aided
writing process lends itself to language/ idea
building because of the ease with which
things can be moved around, regrouped, and
changed. This new opportunity to experi¬
ment with language formation is opening up
writing as a means of expression to a wider
audience than ever before, including people
with dyslexia.
What's Preventing the Connection?
There's a lot of attention being paid to the use
of computers as prosthetic devices for physi¬
cally disabled people. But because of the lack
of understanding and the common miscon¬
ceptions about problems like dyslexia, less
attention has been paid to
computer applications
for this area. Why aren't
more dyslexic adults find¬
ing out about computers
and their use as writing
tools? Some thoughts:
• Dyslexic adults are
relatively invisible. Many
of them aren't aware even
of what their problems
are, let alone of ways to
remediate them.
• Because dyslexic adults aren't a homo¬
geneous group and don't have a single
advocacy program, it's hard to spread infor¬
mation among them.
• Many dyslexic adults have grown com¬
fortable with their limitations. They're not
interested in rocking a limited but steady
boat. It's hard to see a need to write after hav¬
ing successfully avoided it for so many years.
• More educational attention is focused
on children, out of the assumption that
adults are either finished with their formal
education or already functionally educated
and less in need.
• Computers and computer literacy are
being packaged in a way that prevents many
adults from visualizing a personal use for
computers. This includes the misconception
that computer literacy means the ability to
write code. Many dyslexic adults who might
otherwise express an interest in computers
don't, because writing code scares them.
Language Fluency Equals Intelligence?
There is an assumption that language fluency
is the most accurate indicator of an active
thinking process. If a person (especially an
adult) has problems with written expression,
a common conclusion is that there's some¬
thing lacking in his intelligence. Verbal ex¬
pression is our ta ken-for-granted medium for
sharing thoughts. But to assume that use of
verbal language gives us an accurate picture
of thinking processes is to ignore all the other
ways man has devised to express himself.
Verbal language use is analogous to screen
activity in computers. The screen is our
taken-for-granted window on the activity of
the machine, but there are other windows.
Some terminals (Teletype printers, for exam¬
ple) don't have screens. Computers can be
grinding away doing complex calculations
with absolutely nothing showing on the CRT
and nothing happening on the Teletype.
Two things:
• It helps for dyslexics to develop fluen¬
cies in languages other than verbal in order to
build expressive confidence that is transfer¬
able to verbal language learning.
• It is important for dyslexics to find alter¬
native ways (such as multisensory remedial
reading and computer-aided writing) of
learning and becoming
fluent in verbal expres¬
sion, because verbal ex¬
pression is so important
as a learning and sharing
medium.
How Does Writing
with a Computer Help
the Dyslexic? The most
important process change
is that writing (forming
ideas with words) and
printing are now separate
operations. No more complete rewrites due
to one mistake. Electronic editing is so pain¬
less that we can spew out the most amazing
mess and still whip it into shape relatively
easily. Computer-aided writing takes advan-
People who read
my computer-
aided writing . . .
. . . can't see
what my
precomputer
writing was like.
26 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
THE ONLY TRADE SHOW
PREFOCUSED FOR VOLUME
BUYERS OF IBM PC’S
AND COMPATIBLES!
3rd Edition
Anaheim Convention Center
Sept. 24-26, 1984
Exhibitors
Corporate buyers, OEM’s, systems houses,
turnkey vendors, computer dealers and dis-
N ^ — ^rm tributors, national accounts,
Y ^ ISO’s and other volume buyers
(J ] I ] . . . discuss your specific needs
~ k, v ) with the product originators
^ and factory experts . . . and
make a hands-on survey of state-of-the-art
technology. No non-related hardware or soft¬
ware exhibits to get in the way.
Over 1000 booths.
ACI COMPUTERS CORP.: ADL ENTERPRISES: ADVANCED IDEAS INC.: A.J. GREENE, INC.: ALPHA SOFTWARE CORP.: AMDEX CORP.: AMI/ACCOUNTANTS MICROSYSTEMS, INC.:
ANADEX, INC.: ANCHOR PAD INTERNATIONAL: APPARAT: ARIEL CORP.: ARLINGTON SOFTWARE + SYSTEMS: ASHTON-TATE: AST RESEARCH, INC.: BASF SYSTEMS CORP.: BEAMON
PORTER: BEEHIVE: BEST PROGRAMS: BIZCOMP: BRADY COMPANY: BROWN DISC MFG. INC.: BUSINESS COMPUTING: BUSINESS COMPUTER SYSTEMS: CAHNERS PUBLISHING
CO.: CBS EDUCATIONAL & PROFESSIONAL PUBLISHING: CDEX CORP.: CENTEC CORP.: COLUMBIA DATA PRODUCTS: COMPED LEARNING CENTERS: COMPUTER APPLICATION
SERVICES: COMPUTER CONSULTING CENTER: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD: COMPUTER INTELLIGENCE: CONCOURSE CORP.: CONSOLINK: CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGIES:
CORONA DATA SYSTEMS: CULLINET: DAISY-NET INTERNATIONAL, INC.: DATA BUSINESS VISION, INC.: DATAGENERAL: DATAMAC: DATAPRODUCTS CORP.: DAVONG: DCA7TAC:
DELTAK: DESIGNS IN FABRIC: DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS ASSOC. INC.: DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP.: DISTRIBUTED LOGIC: DOW JONES & CO., INC.: DRAGON INDUSTRIES: DUNCAN-
ATWELL COMPUTERIZED TECHNOLOGIES: DYNAMIC MICROPROCESSOR: DYSAN CORP.: DYSAN SOFTWARE: EAGLE COMPUTER, INC.: EPSON: EXECUTEC CORP.: EXECUTIVE
PC EDUCATION: FARADAY ELECTRONICS: FISCHER-INNES SYSTEMS CORP.: FOX AND GELLER: GMS SYSTEMS: GENERAL ELECTRIC CORP.: GENERAL ELECTRIC SERVICE DIV.:
GLOBAL COMPUTER: GOLDSTEIN/KRALL MARKETING RESOURCES: HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS: HELIX TECHNOLOGY, INC.: HERCULES COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY:
HUMAN EDGE SOFTWARE: IBM CORP.: IMAGING TECHNOLOGY, INC.: INTERNATIONAL SOFTWARE ENTERPRISES: JUKI: KAMERMAN LABS: KNOWARE, INC.: LEAR-SIEGLER, INC.:
LEXISOFT: LIFE OFFICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: MAGNA TECHNOLOGIES: MAI SORBUS SERVICE: MARC SOFTWARE INTERNATIONAL: MARTIN MARIETTA DATA SYSTEMS/ITSOFT-
WARE: MBSI/REALWORLD: MCCORMACK & DODGE CORP.: MDBS/ISE: MDS ASSOC.: MICROLINE: MICRORIM: MICROPRO INTERNATIONAL CORP.: MICROSTUF, INC.: MICROWARE,
INC.: MINI-MICRO SYSTEMS: MIRROR IMAGES: MOHAWK DATA SCIENCES CORP.: MOUNTAIN COMPUTER, INC.: MPPI: MYTE MYKE: NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS: NEC INFORMATION
SYSTEMS, INC.: NESTAR SYSTEMS, INC.: NORTH ATLANTIC/QANTEX: NOVATION, INC.: NOVELL, INC.: ON-LINE SOFTWARE, INC.: ORCHID TECHNOLOGY: OVATION: PATHWAY
DESIGN, INC.: PC BUYERS GUIDE: PC DISC: PC INFORMATION SERVICES, INC.: PC JR.: PC PACKAGE: PC MAGAZINE: PC PRODUCTS: PC TECH JOURNAL: PC WEEK: PC WORLD:
PENCEPT, INC.: PENCIL PUSHERS UNITED, INC.: PENN WELL PUBLISHING CO.: PERSONAL CAD SYSTEMS, INC.: PERSYST: PLANTRONICS PC + : PIVAR COMPUTING SERVICES:
PRENTICE-HALL GENERAL PUBLISHING DIV.: PRINCETON GRAPHIC SYSTEMS: PROFIT SYSTEMS: PROTEON: PURE DATA: QUADRAM CORP.: QUE CORP.: RCA SERVICE DIV.: RESTON
PUBLISHING: RIXON INC.: ROLAND DG: ROSESOFT, INC.: SAMNA CORP.: SANTA CLARA SYSTEMS, INC.: SCION: SEEQUA COMPUTER CORP.: SENSOR BASED SYSTEMS: SERVICE-
LAND, INC.: SIGMA BUSINESS SYSTEMS: SMALL COMPUTER COMPANY: SOFTALK PUBLISHING, INC.: SOFTEL, INC.: SOFTWARE DIGEST: SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, INC.: SOFT-
WORD SYSTEMS, INC.: SPECTRA/SOFT, INC.: SPERRY CORP.: STANDARD DATA CORP.: STB SYSTEMS, INC.: STROBE, INC.: SUPEREX BUSINESS SOFTWARE: TALLGRASS
TECHNOLOGIES: TAXAN CORP.: TECHLAND SYSTEMS, INC.: TECMAR: TEC-MART, INC.: TELEBYTE TECHNOLOGY, INC.: TELEVIDEO SYSTEMS, INC.: THOUGHTWARE: 3 COM CORP.:
TPS ELECTRONICS: ULTIMATE COMPUTER SERVICE: UNGERMANN-BASS, INC.: U.S. DESIGN CORP.: VALLEY CRAFT: VECTRIX CORP.: VISICORP: VISUAL COMPUTER, INC.: VOTAN:
WESTERN UNION: WOOLF SOFTWARE SYSTEMS, INC.: XANTHE INFORMATION INC.: XEBEC: X-COMP: XEROX AMERICARE: ZENITH: ZIYAD INC.: ZIATECH: ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING CO.
-ADVANCE REGISTRATION FOR PCExpo • ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER, SEPT. 24-26, 1984 -
NAME
BUSINESS TITLE
COMPANY
COMPANY ADDRESS
CITY
MAIL STOP (if any)
TELEPHONE
PCExpo attendees must be qualified. Please check the applicable boxes in two of the appropriate fields below. (Minors may not register.)
TRADE RESELLERS - YOUR COMPANY’S MAIN BUSINESS ACTIVITY
1 , 1 Computer consultant 5 . J Service vendor 8 . ] Turnkey vendor
I 2.1 Computer dealer dist. 6 ] Software developer 9 1 j Value adder
31) Computer OEM 7 j Systems house 10,1 Other (specify).
4 ] 1 Office products dealer
CORPORATE VOLUME BUYERS - YOUR COMPANY’S MAIN BUSINESS ACTIVITY
A . ) Accounting firm
Hi] Engineering
O
. ] Management
T
Retail sales
B ' 1 Advertising
1 Z) Government Military
consultant
U
Securities broker
C 1 Banking
J rl Hospital
P
' ] Manufacturing
V _
Transportation (all)
D „ j Communications
K : 1 Hotel
Q
*) Publishing
W "
Utility
E i ) Construction Architects
L : ) Industrial design
R
„ ] Real estate
X
Wholesale/Retail sales
F ; ) Credit
M ! 1 Insurance
S
:i Research
Y
Other (specify)
G* 1 Education
N ' j Law office
Development
YOUR JOB FUNCTION (Check main one only)
AA . ] Accountant
EE 1 1 Creatve arts (all)
II
' ) MIS Dir. /Mgr.
NN □ Securities analyst
88 . 1 Administrator
FF C J Designer (all)
JJ
' ] Programmer
OO LI Service technician
CC ! 1 Consultanl
GG :i DP w P manager
KK
J) Purchasing
PP □ Systems Analyst
DO ! 1 Corporate officer
operator
LL
7] Sales/ marketing
QQ D Other (specify)
HH ! ] Engineer (all)
MM
D Scientist
ADVANCE REGISTRATION FEES -
EXHIBITS & MEETINGS
1 day - $20. Date must be given here -
2-3 days - $40.
Mail check payable to PC Expo with
completed form to:
PCExpo 333 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
Tel: (201) 569-8542
Your show credentials will be mailed on or before Sept. 7, 1984.
Advance orders must be received by PCExpo no later than Sept. 3
for return mail service. Advance orders after that date will be held
at the “Will Call" window for your arrival. No foreign advance
orders. All registrations must be accompanied by full payment,
and are non-refundable.
On-site registration fees are $25 for one day, $50 Tor 2-3 days. No
checks accepted on site.
“I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Compensatory Software Tools
My main word processing tools are
WordStar (patched and reinstalled). Word
Proof t The Word Plus, and Punctuation &
Style.
Because word processing software is the
part of a computer system I interact with
most often, the number of features a particu¬
lar program has is less important to me than
the way they are designed to be used. For the
dyslexic user, usability is the only consider¬
ation. An overstatement? Maybe, but con¬
sider this: Most people have to learn about
the computer, the operating system, and the
specific word processing program, A dyslexic
person has to do all that while at the same
time relearning how to read, write, and feel
confident about understanding the whole
thing. Whether or not a word processing pro¬
gram has automatic footnoting is less impor¬
tant to the dyslexic user than whether it's
screen-oriented and its menus are easy to un¬
derstand. With the above in mind, I'd recom¬
mend programs like Word Proof and
Volkswriter before Perfect Writer and Word
Perfect.
WordStar, My initial experimenting was
with WordStar. I stuck with WordStar be¬
cause I was able to use it to get work done
immediately. Had I started with Volkswriter,
l think I'd have been just as happy. After I
had used WordStar for a few days, it fell into
the background for me. 1 like the fact that I
can completely get rid of the menus and re¬
program the function keys* But I probably
would have been happy with any well-de¬
signed word processing program*
Many of the people who find WordStar
hard start by reading the abominable docu¬
mentation from MicroPro* They also try to
learn the most insignificant dot command be¬
fore they even use the program. I'm of the
'Tut the disk in the drive and go, use the doc¬
umentation as a reference" school.
I've taught WordStar to business people,
doctors, lawyers, and university faculty I've
also taught it to severely dyslexic adults who
had never used a typewriter before, let alone
thought it was possible to write with a com’
puter. Which group do you think learned
faster? The dyslexic adults. Why? Because, in
a supportive environment, they were willing
and able to learn by trial and error — with lots
of errors. The initial confusion didn't throw
them; they moved through it in twenty min¬
utes. It took the other groups much longer*
Word Proof* I can't get people who are
impressed by quantity of features to try one
of my favorite programs— Word Proof— be¬
cause it's too simple and has very few editing
features. In a feature comparison with Word¬
Star or Perfect Writer, it doesn't fare well.
But what most comparisons don't measure is
the way the program is implemented.
Word Proof is easy to learn and use not
only because it's simple, but also because it's
well designed. It has a great menu /he Ip sys^
tern, fits on one disk, has an on-line diction¬
ary/thesaurus that does auto-replacements,
allows on-screen margin changes, and auto¬
reforms the right margin. It makes straight
ASCII files and can be used as a spelling
checker for straight ASCII files made by
other editors. It's very fast, it's in color (and
the color is programmable), it costs £60, and
it's not copy-protected.
The editor is very simple. To be useful be¬
yond a spelling checker or beginning word
processor, however, it could use a few more
features. If it had block moves and block/filo
reading and writing, I'd drop WordStar in a
minute for it*
The Word Plus * The Word Plus isn't only
a spelling checker, it's a collection of writing
continued on page 30
tage of the modularity and constructability
of language. Editing this way is like sculpting
in clay— building, cutting, rearranging— all
happening simultaneously and with the
knowledge that if we make a mess, a backup
The computer is a
programmable
extension of a lot of
things . . .
copy of the original is waiting.
Writing is a learning-by-doing activity. So
is reading, Reading and writing are mutually
dependent— they feed each other. The
chicken /egg problem facing dyslexic people
is that they aren't reading for models and
they aren't learning by doing writing. A com¬
puter can help break the block by making
writing enjoyable enough so that a dyslexic
person can produce some finished pieces of
writing without too much resistance. This
feeds more writing, which feeds more learn¬
ing, which feeds confidence.
What's in a Name? The educational sys¬
tem calls dyslexia a learning disability rather
than a specific language problem. That's
wrong; I'm dyslexic, but I'm not a "disabled
learner." I do have a hard time with reading
and writing, and I realize the importance of
both in other learning activities, but I've
found ways of compensating and learning
the same or similar information In different,
sometimes nonverbal, ways. Many dyslexics
develop unusual learning styles and prob¬
lem-solving strategies. But is a different
learning style a disability? Disabled relative
to whom? And who decides whom? What's
the norm, anyway?
(There's a difference, by the way between
specific, dyslexia-caused reading and writing
problems and the generalized learning prob¬
lems that can result from being dyslexic in a
nonsupportive environment,)
The way the problem is described is im¬
portant; it determines societal attitudes, poli¬
tics, remediation efforts, and most important
of all, it influences the self-image of the dys¬
lexic person. The use of the term "learning-
disabled" has a powerful, and in this case,
destructive effect; as a consequence of its use,
some people are going through life believing
that they have a built-in learning problem.
28 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
when, in fact, they don't*
Tools as Extensions. Some people have a
lot of hardware but haven't spent much time
learning to use it. There's not enough resist¬
ance in their lives to force them to adapt—
they can get through things with just the
brute strength of their hardware* Other peo¬
ple seem to have less hardware (or damaged
hardware) but have learned to use what they
have in powerful ways; they've developed
complex operating systems out of a need to
compensate for their seeming lack of hard¬
ware power.
Glasses are an extension of our eyes.
Hearing aids are an extension of our ears*
Typewriters, telephones, cameras, * * .
The computer is a programmable exten¬
sion of a lot of things, including, to a limited
extent, our brains.
Extensions move us away from what
we're using them for, and the layering is
sometimes confusing. For the person who has
a hard time chaining ideas, the technique of
moving away from a task in order to accom¬
plish it is hard to grasp, learn, and use.
Picture a dog trying to get through a
fence. There is an open gate twenty feet to his
side, but he stands there barking, frustrated
because he can't get through. He may see the
gate, but it's on another plane of understand¬
ing. Moving away from where he wants to
go — in order to get there— is hard for him to
see.
A dyslexic person learning to use a com¬
puter and word processing software is put¬
ting layers of tools between himself and his
writing. The realization of how much easier
it is to write with a computer (walk sideways
to get through the gate) only comes after he's
done it enough so that the tool fades into the
background, no longer the object, but a vehi¬
cle for doing something else.
. . . including, to a
limited extent, our
brains.
Many tools are potentially compensatory.
Tools used in this way help us compensate for
a problem we have in doing something* They
don't make the problem go away; they
bridged, A
Buffers, Brains, and Computers
Why do men mature more slowly than
women?
Why are more men than women dyslexic
and dysgraphic?
Why do more men than women have al¬
lergies?
Why do more men than women develop
autoimmune diseases (like multiple sclero¬
sis)?
Norman Geschwind, a neuro immunolo¬
gist at Harvard, has linked this pattern of
problems to the effects of the male hormone
testosterone on the brain. A small excess of
testosterone present in early life (in the
womb) slows brain growth and causes a
developmental lag that prevents normal
hemispheric specialization. Brain functions
based on hemispheric specialization— sided¬
ness and language formation — am affected.
Testosterone also influences the immune
system by stunting the growth of the thymus
gland, reducing the body's ability to tell its
own tissue from foreign matter. This can
cause the body to attack its own tissue— as
happens in the autoimmune disease multiple
sclerosis, in which the body destroys its own
myelin (nerve insulation), which causes
"shorts" that lead to the loss of muscle con¬
trol and a degeneration of eyesight .
Myelin is a fatty sheath that grows over
neurons to insulate them from surrounding
neurons. It's a little like the insulation on elec¬
trical wire. WeTe born with little myelin
around the undifferentiated maze of neuro¬
logical pathways in our brains. As we use
and reuse particular networks of pathways,
they need to be distinguished from other
nearby networks to prevent shorting. Myelin
grows to cover networks and hardens them.
The more a neural network is used, the more
myelination it receives. The more diversity
we re exposed to early on, the more complex
and varied our networks of myelinated neu¬
rons will be. The brain develops through use*
We need to put our knowledge of the
significance of myelination to better use in
designing learning environments that pro¬
vide a diversity of experience. Computers
could be a significant part of enhanced for¬
mal education, but dftes the current crop of
computer-aided instructional software ex¬
ploit the full range of interactive possibilities
the computer offers? More important, what
are the assumptions of the designers of these
CAI programs about the way people think
and learn?
In computers, the miniaturization of chips
and circuits isn't done only to bring the scale
of the machines down; its also to enable
them to run faster by reducing the distance
between components* In brains that have
some immature neural networks because of a
lack of myelination, certain cognitive proc¬
esses are slower because of longer, less
efficient neural pathways.
A testosterone-caused immaturity in the
growth of the left side of the brain and in the
associated language function prevents the use
and myelination of corresponding networks
of neurons. The lack of myelination in turn
keeps the language process inefficient and dif¬
ficult, On the positive side, the differences in
learning style caused by the use of compensa¬
tory pathways to perform the same or similar
functions produces diversity in the species
and helps keep it flexible.
Buffers in Brains and in Computers. A
buffer is a place for the temporary storage of
large amounts of information. Because a mi¬
croprocessor processes information serially
it uses caches and buffers to store parts of in¬
structions until it has enough parts to execute
the whole instruction. Brains have buffers for
continued on page 30
Soflnik for the IBM Persotica! Computer jutw 1984 29
Compensatory Software Tools
continued from page 28
utilities for working with words. Included
under this umbrella are spell checking with
auto-replacement and a lookup feature with
wildcards instead of letters. It does word
counts and word frequency lists, and it
works on files from WordStar— as well as
many other word processors.
There are two features of this program
that make it essential for the dyslexic writer:
the automatic word correction in spell check¬
ing and the ability to look up words in the
dictionary with wildcards instead of letters*
Unlike SpellStar and Perfect Speller (but
like Word Proof), The Word Plus automati¬
cally writes spelling corrections into your
file. It also tells you if you need to go back
and reform the paragraph because the correc¬
tion has made the line stick out into the
margin.
I didn't know how to spell the word na¬
ive. Because I didn't realize it had an "a" in itr
I was having trouble finding it in the diction¬
ary. I used The Word Plus's Find program
by typing find n??ve. Two words came on the
screen— naive and nerue. I recognized naive
as the word 1 was looking for. I also could
have typed find n -kve, leaving the number of
letters between "n" and Vr open. There
would have been more words on the screen
(eighteen), but I still would have recognized
naive. A dictionary in book form used as a
spelling reference can't possibly provide this
type of interactive support.
Punctuation & Style. P&S has two parts,
Cleanup and Phrase, which are used inde¬
pendently of one another. Cleanup finds
punctuation errors; capitalization errors;
odd numbers of quotes, brackets, and toggles;
numeric errors; abbreviation errors; and re¬
peated words. Phrase finds commonly mis¬
used words and phrases and makes sug¬
gestions for revision of sentences contain¬
ing them. It also finds passive voice sentences
and helps turn these into active voice sen¬
tences.
A potential problem with programs that
use conventions as patterns for points of
comparison and don't see context is that they
sculpt the individuality out of our writing —
homogenize it. No one's going to shoot us
(yet) if we put four spaces after a period,
write everything in passive voice, or write in
lists instead of sentences* There are many
different ways of expressing oneself in
words— thank God, But this program isn't
rigid. It can be customized to fit one's per¬
sonal conventions and writing style*
Other Tools. Many dyslexics are also dys-
graphic. Typing helps with letterform prob¬
lems but not with problems involving other
symbols or freehand drawing. Programs like
Logo and Delta Drawing and tools such as
the Koala Pad are ways of exercising a
broader range of symbolic expression than is
possible with writing alone.
Logo is also an excellent environment in
which to learn about structured thinking,
building, making mistakes and debugging
them, and modularity (breaking large prob¬
lems into small chunks). With the use of a
personal computer, a dyslexic/dysgraphic
adult could spend hours with Logo without
feeling humiliated for using a "kids" pro¬
gram. A
Buffers, Brains, and Computers
continued from page 29
doing the same thing (although brains don't
process all information serially). An under¬
standing of how buffers are used to process
language helps link the inefficient neural con¬
nections resulting from lack of myeli nation
to the specific problems experienced by dys¬
lexic people*
Imagine the process of reading this line*
To make words out of letters, you have to see
the letters in order. To make sentences out of
words, you have to see the words in order*
But you probably aren't reading the line let¬
ter by letter; you're combining letters into
larger chunks called words and then combin¬
ing those to form sentences and complete
thoughts. Most people construct language so
efficiently that all this happens in the back¬
ground*
As you read the word computer, for ex¬
ample, you have to hold onto the C-O-M un¬
til you finish scanning to the R to make a
word. This happens so fast in the brain that
you're not aware of it* The place in the brain
that holds onto the C, the O, and the M tem¬
porarily while waiting for the PUTER is
called a buffer. We use buffers not only in
reading but in processing all types of infor¬
mation.
Dyslexics read slowly (we think), because
of the aforementioned lag in the develop¬
ment and myelination of the left side of their
brains* Because dyslexics read slowly, some¬
times giving too much attention to individual
letters, they fill up their buffers before com¬
plete chunks of information can be taken in
and processed*
Once full, the buffer in the brain needs to
be dumped to make room for new letters* We
might lose the COM in COMPUTER before
we come to the PUTER. If this happens, we
need to go back and scan the word again to
pick up the beginning, but in so doing, we
might lose the end. The same is true of the
relationship between words and sentences.
By the time a dyslexic reader gets to the end
of a sentence, he may lose the beginning and
need to go back and reread the whole thing*
It seems that there is an optimum speed
for taking in sensory information, dictated
by the size of a human buffer. If its too slow,
you fill the buffer (and it dumps) before you
have enough information to build meaning*
The buffer problem accounts for some of the
bizarre ways dyslexics interpret words on a
written page; sometimes we just can't see the
whole word* This is the reason for using pho¬
netic as opposed to whole-word remedial
reading methods in teaching dyslexics to
read. The phonetic method breaks words
down into smaller chunks— phonemes—
making them easier to see and remember*
Personal Operating System, Besides help¬
ing in the serial processing of language,
buffers help in screening and differentiating
competing incoming sensory information* I
have a hard time doing more than one thing
at a time (multitasking)* Maybe 1 lack the
ability to differentiate and screen back¬
ground from foreground. If I get too much
competing sensory information presented to
me at once, I can't hold it all long enough to
deal with it sequentially and sort it out.
To cope with this problem, I've developed
a personal operating system — a way of
working/ learning — based on isolation (sen¬
sory deprivation — no distractions). This al¬
lows me to work /think at a high level of
abstraction for a long enough period of time
to see patterns, put handles on batches of
ideas, use complex metaphors and analogies,
then build larger ideas with smaller ones. As
long as Vm aware of my threshold for distrac¬
tion and confusion, I can get work done.
Personal computers give people power*
They give the dyslexic person the power to
write, to form questions and to learn in an
environment that is free of human judg¬
ment* This tool sitting in front of me here has
unquestionably changed my life forever. A
30 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Educational computer games
that make you the C.E.O.
The Chief Executive Series is an
exciting new concept in entertainment.
Each game in the Series makes you the
Chief Executive Officer of a company in
a different industry You make the deci¬
sions that are the key to success or
failure. The quality of your decisions
determines how well your company
does against its competitors.
As you manage your company you
get vitaf information about the business
environment, competitors, and your own
performance, displayed in easy-to-
understand barcharts, pie charts and
graphs. You can play alone, against the
computer or in competition with others,
Chief Executive Series games are as
educational as they are entertaining —
an ideal way to learn the fundamentals
of strategy and decision making in each
of the industries represented Every
game gives you an authentic and real is*
tic management challenge.
Chief Executive Series games
are available for IBM and Apple
computers. They will
thoroughly test and
sharpen your
management
skills
BANK PRESIDENT You are president
of a large commercial bank. You must
plan your strategy and make all the
important decisions involved in running
your financial empire. Set loan and
deposit interest rates, raise or lower
employee salaries, issue and redeem
stocks and bonds, and manage your
investment portfolio.
HIGH-TECH ENTREPRENEUR Start
and build a high-tech manufacturing com¬
pany You must organize a competent
management team, raise venture capital,
and successfully develop and market
your products. To succeed, you have
to develop good management
skills and the ability to
allocate limited re¬
sources.
VENTURE CAPITALIST Compete
with other venture capitalists for funds
and for the best investment opportuni¬
ties, Evaluate business plans and decide
when and on what terms to invest. Pro*
vide seed money for start-ups or finance
more established companies An excel¬
lent way to learn more about the exciting
venture capital world.
Call Lewis Lee for the name of the
dealer nearest you. 1-800-842-9900
51B31 * Palo Alio, CA 94303 * f4lS) 353 1220
Chiei Executive. Bank Pre^denl, Higp-
Tech Entrepreneur. Venture CagilaiisE
and Lewis Lea aie tradamarKsot Lewts
Lee Corporation.
IBM rs a registered Trademark ol IBM
Corporation
Apple is a registered trademark of Apple
Computer Inc.
1933 Lewis Lee Corporation
GREENE WINS
PHOTON’S PCjr—
LEAVES TOWN!!!
<P- pc
* ^ ' TM
STATISTICIAN
A POWERFUL,
NEW STATISTICS PACKAGE
FOR THE IBM PC
Are you tired of complicated data input
and analysis specification on main-
frames? Do you need data manage¬
ment, reports, statistics on unlimited
cases? Are you ready to do profession¬
al slatistics m your own office within
minutes?
Let PC STATISTICIAN rw do the work for you.
EASY TO USE
PC STATISTICIAN'** is flexible and
sophisticated, yet simple to use Follow
the examples in the manual, then start
analyzing experimental or survey data
immediately
CHOOSES CASES
AUTOMATICALLY
To get reports on your data, specify the
analysis, then the variables and varia¬
ble levels If you have all of your data
in a single file, PC STATISTICIAN’** can
choose the records and variables for
your analysis automatically. It even
handles missing data automatically.
COMPREHENSIVE
You will be able to carry out virtually ali
of your data analysis with this one pack¬
age PC STATISTICIAN1* includes:
Research data base
Search & select on 1-4 variables
Crosstabulation on 1-5 variables
Descriptive slaiistics
Frequency distribution
T-tests
1-way anova
Non paramedics
Correlations
Curvefitting
Multiple regression
Contingency tables
Data transformations
Graphics
PC STATISTICIAN comes with a 10 day
money back guarantee. This is the first
program in The Statistics Senes ™ for
the IBM PC IBM PC, PC DOS, 128K,
2 DSDD Disk Drives 5300.00
HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS
To Order — Call
To ft free 1800) 451-3030
In California (818) 993-8536
or Write
HUMAN SYSTEMS DYNAMICS
9010 Reseda Blvd Suite 222 1 Oepl . S
^ ^ Norlhricfge, CA 91324
■Bh Dealer Inquiries Invited
HT don't know why anybody bothers en¬
tering those contests to win a PC/> — your
chances are one in a billion!" Youve proba¬
bly heard that lament a hundred times, Jim
Greene, of Poughkeepsie, New York, proba¬
bly thought that way too* Until, that is, he
discovered he was the lucky winner of Pho¬
ton's Unnamed, a guest contest from the
March 1984 So f talk for the IBM Personal
Computer. :
As you may recall, the object of this con¬
test was to christen a new product developed
by Photon Software that provides an instant
window through which you can access your
printer at any time. The catchy name Jim
Greene came up with?
Print Mate
Not Print-Mate or PrintMate , but Print
Mate. Perhaps it was by bucking the trend
toward MidWordCapitalization that Greene
edged ahead. Reports have it (the winner is
on vacation) that he is "quite elated " to have
won a PC jr complete with disk drive, Zenith
monitor, DOS 2.1r and Basic.
You're probably saying to yourself,
"Sure, Jim won, but he was only one out of
billions, right?" Wrong. The runners-up and
special-category winners, who received cop¬
ies of Prhit Mate, Tenkey Media Magician ,
and a Photon binder, were legion. The first
runners-up, all of whom dreamed up Easy
Print , were Janet L. Ater (Grand Prairie,
TX), C.A. Fenn (Flagstaff, AZ), AI Ham¬
mond (Atlanta, GA), Larry Stephey (Irving,
TX), and Terry Rosene (Garden Grove, CA).
Second runners-up, for suggesting Print
Commander, were Charles L, Elkins
(Arlington, VA), Charles A. Coakweli III,
M.D. (Mayfield Heights, OH), Mark N.
Brown (Providence, RI), and J. Patrick
Reinert (Webster, TX).
Third runners-up, for Print Pro, were
Curtis Holland (Humble, TX), Charles
Coakweli III, M.D., Jack Miller (New
Milford, CT), Wendy Jo Martin (Havana,
ID, and Larry Stephey.
The most humorous entry came from
Diana Chepurko (Houston, TX), who
penned the lighthearted appellation Sweet
Add- A-Line. The best acronym, from Ra¬
leigh, North Carolina, w'as J,A. Wooten's
O.P.E.N. , which stands for Online Printer
ENvironment, And the dubious distinction
of the w'orst name (for Photon's product, that
is) goes to Troy Conner for Foniwacker
Gee, I didn't realize it was so easy to win.
I could have thought up names as good as
those!" Right. And the next time Bo f talk
hosts a guest contest, you'll get your big
chance.
32 ]une 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
DBMS?
DBMS, n ,, A buzzword for Data Base Management System, A structure in which to co/Zecf information on a given subject in one or more files „
A software program enabling you to store, manipulate and retrieve your information contained in those fifes.
\
Fully relational data base management
-Multiple file and disk access.
Fully menu driven - Presented in
"English"
3 simple and automatic program
generators - A complete package.
Calculates and compares figures
- Quickly generates valuable reports.
Probase® by the PR0BASE CrouP
Fully Relational Data Base Management System (DBMS)
Probase's Quick Cen 'tells'' your computer how to enter, find , sort
calculate, analyze and present information Easily add , change, delete ,
or browse through your data . ProbaseVabM/fy to combine and collect
data on a given subject from many separate files a Mows you im-
mediate access to all of your information - Bookkeeping, Cost
Accounting, Inventory, Personnel, Portfolio Analysis, Sales, etc* Menu
Gen joins files together in an easy-to-use selection list. Report Gen
compiles virtually any comparative reports you need, including projec
tions and forecasts. And prints them in any format you choose.
ProbasesRequires No Training
Press a 'function key for help, Concise documentation w?rb
samp/es on-screen assists you with your current task And returns
w here you left off. Complete documentation includes a handy 2-part
tutorial manual >
Easy Enough For Non-Technical Users
Prohase's three program generators (Quick, Menu , Report ) create data
base management applications according to your direction
-automatically. Enter your requests using simple selections and fill-in-
the-blank menus. Inquire , generate a report, create or update your
data bases , design entry screens.,. Programming and code entry are
completely eliminated , so you don't need to be a programmer , or
even have computer experience , to produce professional automated
business reports.
Powerful Enough For Programmers
Try Pm base Free for 30 I
Visit your local dealer or call
300- 25B~7i)7Q for your copy of
Probase. if not satisfied, simply
return It within 30 days for a
prompt , courteous refundt
whatever the reason.
5ee for yourself how
useful Probase can be
for you,
Available in PGDOS, MS-DOS and
CPMB6 (all using 128k) and CP/M (64k).
tnioy the newest, most effective
data base management systems
Access 3 different files at once and work with as many as you need
within a single program , Combine your files in one-to-many ' or
''many-to-one'' relationships . When you program in Probase; alt of
your tools are immediately available Macro Instruction Language,
Subroutine Calls , Programmable Function Keys and more Program ,
test and debug without an outside editor, assembler or compiler.
Make changes and corrections instantly.
Free disk space... Probase; efficiently compresses screens and program
tables onto your disks. And Probase' need not be present on disk when
you run your applications. Enjoy more disk storage capacity and faster
throughput by eliminating extra program code.
Probase®
Another Solution® from
Data Technology Industries^,
701 A Whitney Street San Leandro, CA
94577
Write or Call Today and Find Out How You Can Put Pmhase’To Work For You.
800-258-7071
(415) 838-1206
A
THE C SPOT
s promised last month, we are about to be-
gin an exciting journey through the perilous
W Pits °f pointerland. The capabilities we've
covered up to now have been slight varia¬
tions on things that are already available in other languages. Pointers,
by Rex Jaeschke
Introduction to Pointers
/* pointl.c - Introduce pointers */
main ()
{
int var, * pvar, newvar;
float fvar,* pfvar, newfvar;
however, are a new concept.
Pointers are powerful and easy to use; but if used carelessly they can
make code unreadable, unmaintainable, and difficult to port to other
systems. In short, pointers can provide a lot of capability and a lot of
trouble. Probably the best way really to understand pointers is to use
them — again and again and again.
A pointer is a variable that contains the address of another variable.
If a pointer to a variable is known, the contents of that variable can be
accessed through that pointer. For example.
var = 10;
printf ("Value of var is %d \ n",var);
pvar = &var;
printf ("Address of var is %u \ n",pvar);
newvar = *pvar;
printf ("Value of newvar is %d \ n", newvar);
fvar = 123.234;
printf ("Value of fvar is %7.3f \ n",fvar);
pfvar = &fvar;
printf ("Address of fvar is %u \ n", pfvar);
Contemporary
Attire your IBM PC in style! ComputerWear is dust protection
with class. Design features include select, woven fabric and
embroidered emblem. Order now. Satisfaction guaranteed.
□ YES, PROTECT MY PC IN STYLE! SEND ME
_ Keyboard(s) $16 _ Monitor(s) $
_ Drive(s) $18 _ Printer(s) $
_ Ipc Mon/Drive$36 Add $2.00 Shipping
N STYLE! SEND ME: □ CHECK
_ Monitor(s) $18 □ VISA
_ Printer(s) $18 □ MC
Add $2.00 Shipping Total: $ _
(CA. Res. add tax)
Print Name: _
Address:
City/State:
_ _ Zip
Credit Card #:
_ _ Exp.
Signature:
Contemporary ComputerWear -
1320 36th Ave./San Francisco. CA 94122 • 415/564-0506
IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines Inc.
newfvar = * pfvar;
printf ("Value of newfvar is %7.3f\ n", newfvar);
}
produces the output
Value of var is 10
Address of var is 65506
Value of newvar is 10
Value of fvar is 123.234
Address of fvar is 65498
Value of newfvar is 123.234
int *pvar; defines pvar to be a pointer to an integer. That is, pvar
contains the address of the integer variable it points to. In this context,
the * is a unary operator and should not be confused with the multipli¬
cation binary operator that uses the same symbol. Similarly, float
*pfvar; defines pfvar to be a pointer to a float value.
Once a pointer has been defined, it can point only to objects of the
specified type. Attempting to make pvar point to a double, for exam¬
ple, will cause a compilation error.
The size of a pointer is compiler-dependent. On the PC and other
sixteen-bit systems, most C compilers use sixteen-bit pointers that can
point to a maximum of 64K locations. That's why these compilers cre¬
ate programs with a maximum of 64K of data space; they can't directly -
access more memory locations. Some compilers use thirty-two-bit
pointers; this allows for very large programs and data areas.
The & unary operator means "Take the address of my operand."*
Hence pvar — &var; assigns the address of var to pvar (in this case to
65506). That is, pvar points to var . Note that we don't write *pvar =
34 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Come in late on " The C Spot”? All back issues of the column — from January
1984 — are still available; for further information, see page 4.
One to five players run against the actual candidates for the
1 98*4 Presidential nomination in 20 state primaries. Take a stand on
the issues, toss your hat in the ring, and make your dream come true.
1984 l diskette documentation, ISBN 0-89303-699*4 $29.95.
NOMINATION, a game for the IBM PC with 12S K, was created
by I CCS. and published by Brady Communications Co.* Inc. Enter the
race for the NOMINATION at Waldenbooks. Not available at all stores.
Waldenbooks
\our new source tor computer books.
T IBM PC ts a registered trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation
Madam
Jntextog
Bad-Up"
Service for
your IBM PC
and Mixed
Peripherals
It’s no wonder that most
American businesses have
chosen the IBM Personal
Computer to meet their micro¬
computer needs, since most
everything in computers today
is compatible with it. Particularly
other brands of peripherals.
Yet, when you solve one problem,
you’re often left with another —
like incompatible sendee
programs. After all, with IBM
only willing to maintain its
own machines, the alternative
has been to trust a “general
specialist” (who tries to be every¬
thing to everybody). Until now
New, From Control Data
We specialize in servicing
IBM Personal Computers.
But, unlike IBM, we’re flexible
enough to maintain mixed
brands of peripherals too. So,
you’ve got tire best of both
worlds — a specialist who’s
flexible,
IBM Computer
Service Specialists
For Over 14 Years
Control Data became the
first national maintenance
organization to service IBM
computers outside of IBM,
over 14 years ago. So, we’re no
strangers to the service
business or to Big Blue. And
with an exceptional record
for over 25 years in servicing
computers, you can rely on
our experience, knowledge aid
expertise. Our field specialists
constantly keep on top of the
newest equipment in the
industry, so you know they're
up- to* speed on all of your
most current needs. And they'll
stay with you until you’re
back tip and running again.
Custom Designed
Flexibility
We realize that no
two companies have the same
service needs, so we’ll provide
you with a contract that is
designed to your company’s
specific needs, at a most
cost-effective rate. It means you
can get different levels of
service on different pieces. You
can cover your most critical PC
equipment on a rapid Customer
Engineer Exchange and your
less critical pieces on overnight
Courier Sen. ice Exchange
or Ship-in Exchange.
Our Unique
Flexible Fee Offering
When your IBM PC and peripherals need service, gel Back-Up, Call 1 ( 800 ) 346-6789.
As of yet, it’s probably
difficult for you to speculate on
IBM FC and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
what kind of coverage you’ll
be needing since the IBM PC’s
are so new to your business.
So, we’ve got the most exciting
new concept in the business —
a flexible fee option that lets
you pay a very low annual rate
for service with additional
charges for equipment exchanges
only as you need them. You’re
protected by a ceiling on the
amount you'll spend in a year.
Or, if you don’t want to worry
about the details, you can take
our Fixed Fee coverage, If
you'd rather use us on a non-
contract basis, you can still
have die same fast service. What¬
ever your needs are, we’ve got
something to fit you. No other
service company can offer you
the same level of expertise
with the same flexibility that
Back-Up service can give you.
Four Hour Service
Your IBM Personal Com¬
puters have definitely become
an integral part of business
today, and when they go down,
it seems that business goes
down too. We know you can't
afford to wait, so we'll normally
get you back up and running
again within four hours.
1(800)346-6789 Will
Get You Back-Up
Nationwide
Call our toll free number
for more information about
getting Back-Up service, In
Minnesota, call (612) 292-2209.
We’re nationwide, and growing,
so your other offices can have
coverage too.
No one should be without
Back-Up, That’s what we are.
It's what we give you. And that’s
what you’ll be.
From the
High Touch
Professionals
at Control CONTROL
Data DATA
ARE YOU TIRED
OF FLOPPY EXCUSES?
“EXCUSE ME, i REALLY HATE TO
BOTHER YOU AT A TIME LIKE THIS
BUT THIS DISK IS COMPLETELY FULL!'
QuadDisk has all the answers
Quadram presents QuadDisk,
the Winchester hard disk
system that lets you leave all
those floppy disks— and their
excuses— behind, QuadDisk does
everything that floppies do, only
better. And faster.
A lot of storage in a little space
For starters, QuadDisk will take
care of your storage problems—
in more ways than one. QuadDisk
comes in 5. 10, 16, 22 and 65
megabyte capacities for ail the
On-line storage space
you need. That's any¬
where from about 20
to 225 floppies worth
ofinformation. Or up
to 36,000 pages of
< material— and then
What^ eyen more amazing is
thatfHis powerful hard disk
r drive simply slips into your
second SW' floppy drive space
to become an integral part of
ydur system.
Ready when you are
it takes just minutes to install
and QuadDisk is thereto Stay.
( QuadDisk is always there when
you
need it.
And it works’ 1
fast. QuadDisk
accesses information
faster than a floppy. And can
perform up to 9 tasks at once.
It comes complete with its own
software. And a file utility that
guides you when you want to
run and manipulate files and
programs. There’s nothing hard
about using this hard
disk system. Just follow
the simple commands
on the screen.
Quality, its the mark of
dependability and perfor¬
mance from the leader in
microcomputer enhancements.
Visit your local
computer retailer _ .
today and ask to
see QuadDisk in
action. When %llAhwl amm
you compare * ~ v J
^2
it to the floppies, thereS no excuse
not to buy QuadDisk.
Safety first
QuadDisk protects your
work like no floppy can.
And for added data security,
there's QuadDisk with removable
cartridges for up to 5MB on-line
mass storage and virtually unlimited
off-line storage capacity. Just pop
one in when you're ready. Pop it
out when you're done.
Quadram Quality
You'll find that QuadDisk is
backed by reliable Quadram
4355 International Blvd Norcross. GA 30093
(404) 923-6666/TWX 610-7664915^
^Ob^rlght 1984 Quadram Corporation. All rights reserved.
&var;> When we assign an address to a pointer, as in this case, the *
must not be used.
By definition, pointers must point to real memory locations. There¬
fore they must contain values in the range of 0 to the maximum positive
pointer value; they can't contain a negative value. Since pointers are
unsigned quantities, they must be printed using the unsigned edit mask
%u, as the printf example show's. Don't confuse the unary operator &
with the binary bitwise AND operator, which uses the same symbol.
The unary operator & cannot be used with register variables, be¬
cause the hardware registers don't have memory addresses. The ad¬
dress of a register variable can't be found, even if that variable isn't
Stored in a register. Likewise, the address of a literal string, such as
"Hello", can't be determined. Expressions such as & "onefteo" are ille¬
gal; so is & (expression) t because an expression is not a variable.
n ewvar ~ *pv or: assigns the contents nf the address pointed to by
pvar to newv ar. That is, it takes the int value stored at location 65506
and copies it to the variable newvar. In this case we must use the *
operator newvar = pvar- makes newvar point to the same address
that pvar points to. Since newvar wasn't defined as a pointer to begin
with, this doesn't make sense, although it probably will be allowed by
the compiler In this case, the ini variable newvar would be assigned the
address value that pvar points to. This kind of statement is dangerous
because newvar is a signed int while pvar is an unsigned value. Strictly
speaking, newvar doesn’t contain an address, but rather a signed inte¬
ger value. Pointers should never be thought of as integers and should
never be assigned to int variables.
pvar means "pointer to some object," while itpvar means "the actual
object being pointed to." In the example point!. cf *pvar is actually
equivalent to an inf variable and, as such, can be used in any expression
in place of a "regular " int value. For instance, newvar = ( *pvar + 27)
/ 22; is a perfectly valid statement.
In a roundabout way, this statement achieves the same result as the
statement m muar—var;, except that it uses a pointer. As mentioned
earlier, if a pointer to a variable is known, the contents of that variable
can be accessed through that pointer. In this case, we can get at par
through the pointer pvar.
The example uses jvar and pjvar to demonstrate the same principles
for variable types other than inf. Pointers can point to objects of any of
the data types.
As pointers are variables, and pointers point to variables, pointers
can point to other pointers. A pointer that points to a pointer, which in
turn points to a variable, just adds another degree of indirectness. This
kind of operation will be familiar to the seasoned assembly language
programmer.
The printf edit mask %7.3f displays the float or double argument
using seven character positions (minimum) with three decimal places.
This is similar to the Ftnm syntax used in Fortran's format statement,
except that % 7 \3f displays at least seven positions (it uses more if neces¬
sary); in Fortran, m is both the maximum and the minimum field
width.
If you are totally confused, you're not alone. Coming to grips with
pointer basics takes time and usually requires n readings of the explana¬
tion, where n may be a large number. Don't go any further until you're
comfortable with the material presented so far. Above all, do not de¬
spair. Read and reread the text, then write some simple programs of
your own.
Incrementing and Decrementing Pointers. Like variables, pointers
can be incremented and decremented. For example,
TEAMS/PC: FUND-RAISER
Tracking the Cheerful Giver
t - V ’
Working with the TE A MriM ATE/PC database manager, FUND-RAISER helps
your organization manage donor information efficiently and accurately.
FGND RAISER produces solicitations, receipts gifts,
maintains donor files, acknowledges contributions,
and reports giving history.
Designedexclusively for the *IBM/PC, FUND -RAISER
interfaces with *SordmFs Superwriter and Supercalc
3 for wordprocessing and spreadsheet functions.
. Write or call CMDS for a complete
product description.
' FUND RAISER keeps donorA
/ and donee smiling .
Generate custom solicitation letters, special events
announcements, gift acknowledgements, mailing
labels, and phonathon forms from database file data.
Available 3/84 for the IBM/PC with hard disk, color
or monochrome monitor, and 132 column printer.
Comes with complete typeset documentation,
tutorial and demo files, . *r*
COMPUTER MANAGEMENT
& DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
EG Box 386. Harrisonburg. VA 22801
(703) 4345499
Name _
■IBM iv » registered Irsdsmafk rtl ImtnrutMcm Eki.iinesa MiicMine* Supernalr J Slperpfllflf arc EirtdsinisriiJ, o| Sort Jin
Title
Company.
Street _
State _ _
-City_
Zip.
Telephone .
Sofia Ik for the I BM Pe rsona l Cot nputer fun e i 984 39
The Controller
Controls Power, Peripherals, Spikes, and Glitches.
Power Control™ protects
computer circuitry and data
stored in memory against the
damage voltage spikes can
cause.
Puts on/off control of your
computer, terminal, printer, and
more at your fingertips in a
slim panel unit sized to fit
underneath your computer
terminal
Contains a master switch (to
turn your computer, terminal,
printer, a modem or a lamp on
or off at the same time) and
three additional switches to turn
peripherals on or off in any
order you desire.
Power Control 1 & 2 protect
against voltage spikes caused by
turning on and off of:
air conditioners • power tools
furnaces • electrostatic copy
machines • computer disc
drives • appliances • hairdryers
Overvoltages in power lines
(Caused when utilities switch
lines during peak usage hours.)
Undervoltages in power lines
(Occur as surge following
blackouts and brownouts.)
Lightning strikes (Direct hits
and strikes several miles away.)
Overloads, short circuits or
grounding of circuit.
Power Control 2 also protects
against noise interference
(unwanted electrical signals)
picked up and transmitted by
power lines, power supply cords,
and noise generated by static
electricity.
Sources of noise interference
are: Fluorescent lights • Wiring
receptacles, plugs, sockets •
Radio transmission • Television
transmission • Sunspot activity
• Operating computers,
machines • Automotive ignition
systems • and the same causes
of electrical spikes listed at left.
J Relax Technology. !
S To order, phone: 415/471-6112 or mail to: k
J 3101 Whipple Rd., #25, Union City, CA j
\| 94587 Prices include shipping . 5
3 □ Power Control 1 ^
k QC* * Calif. Residents add k
vpU y J applicable sales tax.
J □ Power Control 2 j
S QS* FEATURES: 10 amp S
9 circuit breaker. RFI 5
^ noise filtering. IEC power connector J
3 □ Check for $ _
^ □ VISA □ MasterCard
3 Card # _
h? Exp. Date _
b Name _
J Address _
2 City _
^^ignature _
.enclosed.
Bank #_
-St-
-Zip-
i
16” width, 11“ depth
allows placement under
terminal for
fingertip control.
Additional switches
give individual
control over
peripherals .
Organizes
power wires .
4 cords in-
1 cord out.
Eliminates reaching
over, behind and
around devices to
turn them on or off.
Master
switch turns
computer
and all
peripherals
on or off at
same time.
Less than
2 " high.
e Relax Technology. The company that works so you can relax and get down to business.
/* point2.c - pointers and char arrays*/
char name[] = "JOHN SMITH";
main ()
{
char * pc; / * define pointer to char * /
pc = name; /* point to start of name*/
while (*pc) / * test if end of string found */
putchar (*pc++); /* if not, display char*/
putchar (' \ n');
}
produces
JOHN SMITH
This example defines the array name as a global (or external) by plac¬
ing its definition outside of any function. This makes the example sim¬
pler, as external arrays can be initialized at definition time, whereas
automatic arrays cannot. The compiler will determine the correct di¬
mension of the array by counting the number of characters in the
quoted string and adding 1 for the \ 0 terminator, name is eleven char¬
acters long.
pc is defined to be a pointer to a char, pc = name; causes pc to point
to the same address that name points to; that is, the address contained
in the pointer name is copied to the pointer pc.
Straightforward enough, but what's this pointer "name"!
Ever since we introduced arrays in this series, we have been using
pointers without saying so. The name of an array is really a pointer
that contains the address of the first element in that array. This should
be obvious when you consider that we saw that array arguments in
function calls are passed by address, not by value, name then is synon¬
ymous with &namefO ]. We could have written pc — BnamelO]; instead
of pc = name;.
while ( *pc) tests the value of the char pointed to by pc— in this case,
the letter J. J has a nonzero value (74) that tests true, so the body of the
loop is executed, putchar ( *pc + +); causes the char pointed to by pc
to be printed. Then the pointer is incremented so that it points to the
next char in the name array. This process is repeated until the terminat¬
ing null character is reached, whereupon the while test proves false, the
loop is terminated, and the newline is printed.
As you know, the + + operator increments its operand by 1. In this
example, it increments the pointer pc, making it point to the next char
in the array. The programmer may not know (and shouldn't care) how
many bits, bytes, or words the pointer really has been incremented by.
All that matters is that the incrementing of a char pointer gets you to
the next char in the string.
Note that we rely on the presence of the terminating null. If that
character were not there, we would march right off the end of the string
into no man's land. C provides no runtime checking to ensure that an
array pointer indeed points to an element in the array.
The expression *pc + + is worthy of comment. Since the unary op¬
erators * and + + are evaluated left to right, *pc is evaluated, its
value is used, and then the pointer pc is incremented by pc + + .
As we have seen, *pc is equivalent to a char variable. So far we have
used *pc to take the value of the char pointed to by pc. We have seen
the expression *pc only in the right-hand side of an assignment expres¬
sion. It also can be used on the left side. For example, *pc = X'; means
set the value of the char pointed to by pc to 'X'.
Now, back to the whole expression *pc + + . The order of evalua¬
tion implies that *pc+ + might be equivalent to ( *pc) + + . This is not
the case. ( *pc) + + causes the char value pointed to by pc to be incre¬
mented by 1. The actual char pointer pc is not changed. Isn't C fun?
Next month we'll continue on the perilous pointer path. In the mean¬
time, thanks to readers who have written with questions, comments,
and suggestions; keep those letters coming. ▲
40 ]une 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
PALANTIR WORD PROCESSING
WE DON’T HAVE TO BEEF UP OUR GUARANTEE
WITH A LOT OF BULL
Other software companies give
you disclaimers. Palantir gives you a
real guarantee; Palantir backs its soft¬
ware with 90 days of free phone sup¬
port via a toll-free number- When you
call, we won't tell you to ask your
dealer or read your manual; well
answer your question, free of charge.
If we can't solve your problem, we'll
replace your Palantir Software with
any competitive software of compar¬
able value.
We couldn't make an offer like
this if we weren't confident about
Palantir word processing. If s easy to
learn, easy to use, easy to live with.
Palantir word-processing soft¬
ware is designed for microcomputers.
Yet it gives you all the features of a
dedicated word processor. You
won't find a better system on the
market today.
To find out more about Palantir
software, mark the reader-service card
in this issue or call, toll-free;
1-800-368-3797. In Texas, call
713-520-8221.
We'll respond with detailed
information on Palantir software and
a free “No Bull”
button. A closer look
will convince you
that we're not just
one of the herd.
And thafs no bull
Palantir Software 3400 Montrose Blvd, Suite 718 Houston, Texas 77006
rj* Palantir is a trademark of Palantir, Inc.
Lucille Le Sueur made a name for herself.
She called herself Joan Crawford.
Because a star needs a star’s name.
One that commands attention.
And gets it.
MultiMate International is that
kind of a name. Replacing Softword
Systems. A good name too, but one
that no longer suits the company
we’ve become.
Today, MultiMate International
spans four continents. MultiMate,
the word processor that redefined
the IBM PC, has been translated
into five languages. Its similarity to
Wang has resulted in phenomenal
growth, both in acceptance and
sophistication, and fueled our own
phenomenal growth as a company.
MultiMate International. It’s the
name we deserve. Because it’s the
name we’ve earned.
MultiMate w ,
international Weve made a name for ourselves
Computer Literacy:
LUBA GOY AND BILL VAN
SHOW THE FOLKS IN TV LAND
By JoAnn Levy
With a name like Luba Goy, she almost
has to be good. And she is: understanding,
confident, knowledgeable, reassuring. Even
her office and desktop look just right — neat
and professional, with a nice photo of her
children handsomely framed. Billy Van
probably needs all that. You can tell he'd be
a bit of a bumbler if it weren't for Luba.
Oh, he's agreeable as all get out, but a trifle
perplexed.
For twelve weekly half hours these two
get together. Luba, attractive, businesslike,
carefully groomed, is invariably patient but
firm. Billy, his middle-aged boyishness
beaming through owlish glasses, bounces
good-naturedly between confusion and
amazement. The duo could be analyst and
patient or sitcom costars. In fact, they're
Canadian actors portraying teacher and
student in TVOntario's computer education
series, Bits and Bytes.
Hats off to the Canadians for reversing
the typical assumptions; in this case it's the
woman who knows everything there is to
know about computers and the man who
has to be told where the switch is. The role
reversal should be reassuring for computer-
illiterate men, perhaps already on shaky
ground, who now, thanks to silicon chips,
have a whole new reason to feel
inadequate. Everyone can take heart from
Billy Van. He can't type — but he can learn
to use a computer.
That's what the series is all about:
demystifying the technology, parading the
computer's myriad capabilities, and
demonstrating that anyone — even guys like
Billy Van — can find them fun and useful.
Bits and Bytes was enormously
successful when it first aired in Ontario last
spring. More than ten thousand people
from the Toronto area alone enrolled. The
program's appeal is as broad as its potential
audience, since it was designed for all ages
and for anyone who wants to learn about
computers.
When the series was aired for U.S.
viewers in January, as part of a Public
Broadcasting Service program called
Academy on Computers, it marked the first
time that television here has been combined
with hands-on computer learning
experience. Participating were four PBS
stations in New York, two in California,
plus one each in Kentucky, Nebraska,
Ohio, and Wisconsin. Community
newspapers published the program
announcement along with an enrollment
coupon. Viewers interested in total
participation paid seventy dollars for the
privilege.
Nationwide, more than thirteen
thousand people paid up. Of those enrolled,
27 percent specified the IBM PC as the
computer used to work through the course.
More than three thousand folks in Los
Angeles popped for the fee, thereby
committing themselves to KCET each
Saturday at noon (or reruns Sunday
morning at 9) for twelve consecutive weeks.
Program schedulers at KCET really know
how to bust up a weekend. Of the other
participating PBS stations, Toledo's WGTE
offered the most accommodating schedule,
with three weekday airings, plus Saturday
and Sunday.
Of course, anyone with a television set
and a paid-up electric bill could have
watched Luba and Billy for free. Official
registrants, however, received, for their
seventy dollars, a 175-page large-format
Resource Book, a 40-page Hands-On
Beginner's Manual and floppy disk specific
to the registrant's computer, a series of
newsletters, a pamphlet describing
The ever-understanding Luba Goy guides
Billy Van through a tutorial on Bits and
Bytes, a presentation of TVOntario. The
series provides an introduction to
computers, as well as segments on
languages, graphics, communications, and
other computer-related topics . The twelve
half-hour programs are being broadcast on
PBS stations throughout the U.S .
44 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 45
UltraFile -vs- The rest of the database/
VisiFiie
DataBase Manager II
«“■ 'n
^ *1
PRICE
GRAPHING
Capabilities
-Mr-
M
HELP
SCREEN
BROWSE
FEATURE
AUTOMATIC
formatting
BUILT IN
WHAT IF
FUNCTION
1 UN-SCREEN 1
'CALCULATIONS 1
DATA
VERIFICATION
USER
DEFINED
SCREENS
MULTI -KEY
SEARCH
ULTRAFILE
$195.
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Friday!
S295.
X
X
X
X
X
X
PFSTile.Graph.Rep.
$447.
X
X
X
X
Database Manager II
$295,
X
X
X
X
X
Visifile
$300,
X
X
X
When you compare features and price,
there’s no comparison.
If the recent database /hie management explo-
sion lias left you in a state of confusion, you're
not alone. We d like to clear up some of that
confusion.
We’ve taken the five most popular programs
on the market and run a comparison so you can
see for yourself exactly where they stand. And
what you’re getting for your money.
As you can see from the chart, dollar for
dollar, feature for feature, UltraFile comes out
on top, Here’s why;
To begin with, UltraFile has filing, reporting
and graphing capabilities all in one package
So, when you buy UltraFile, you automatically
get everything you need for creating terrific
graphs, custom reports, and managing and stor¬
ing your information, And you gel it all for $195,
Secondly, UltraFile has a help screen
UltraFile leads you step by step through the
program. If you need additional help or want to
clarify’ a point, you'll be able to call up the help
screen with the touch of a single key, This
feature makes UltraFile incredibly easy to use
Thirdly, UltraFile has automatic data for¬
matting, So if you want a certain word in your
text to appear in all caps, you only have to enter
it that way the first time. UltraFile automatically
capitalizes the word each lime it appear. That
means fewer errors and more consistency in
vour text.
UltraFile also does on-screen calculations,
has a handy "browse'’ feature for quickly
scanning your data, and has a built-in “what
if?" function so you can make projections.
Plus, UltraFile talks to the most popular word¬
processing and spreadsheet programs (1-2-3,
WordStar, VisiCalc and others), which gives you
greater versatility.
When you stack it up against the rest,
UltraFile has the most features for the best
price. It just wouldn’t make sense to consider
anything else.
Available for: IBM PC/XT
Price: $195 complete.
File, Report and Graph,
For the name and location of the UltraFile
dealer nearest you, or your free 64 page booklet,
'Tips For Buying Software" please write or call:
Continental Software, 11223 S, Hindry
Avenue, Dept, ST1. Los Angeles, (1A 90045,
213/410-3977.
Continental
Software
A Division of Arrays. Inc
l ftttMt H i rnUMfffil iridemiiV uf Conttuenti] Solwwe Frtrtiy! a i ;ep l m of tojiton-lktie VfS File:, Gnph. Hffurt ire fffc I m of Sefiwaw hjhlfdim* to tfatttax Maiiafltf ll « a wg t m u f ilpha Safcwar? t’orp fUifilt and listCjk ire rep
t m ofliHCoif I 'in a a rep 1 rr. al lotus [Jetricpmenl Co YuhuMjt it a rep I j» of .MicroPro M I IBM PC/XT are rep i m uf IBM Carp
The team of David Stansfield and Denise Boiteau are producing Bits and Bytes.
1979, are in approximately seventy
locations in the U.S. and abroad.) Another
program has musicians explaining how
musical frequencies are created and music is
composed at the computer. Some
computers are designed to mimic
instruments. The Commodore 64, for
instance, can turn its keyboard into that of
a piano. The IBM PC was apparently
designed with loftier intentions.
An artist interviewed for the program on
graphics demonstrates some remarkable
creations. At the same time, viewers learn
all about low-resolution character
generation, high-resolution bit mapping,
and that the word pixel comes from
"picture element."
There's no question but that the series
makes computers attractive to even the
most die-hard pencil-and-paper devotees. It
succeeds admirably in stripping the
mystique and revealing the computer as,
according to one enamored artist, "a dream
machine." This should be an enormously
reassuring program for those who bought
computers only to discover that all they
have in common with TVs, stereos, VCRs,
and assorted other electronics around the
house is that they plug into standard
outlets. An astonishing number of
computer purchasers apparently saw,
bought, and failed to conquer. According to
a survey done for InfoWorld , an astounding
25 percent of all personal computer owners
have either stopped using them or never
started— including 13 percent of IBM PC
owners!
People who can take such an "ouch" to
the pocketbook may well want to pop for
another seventy dollars to help ease the
apparent frustration. The familiar glow of
the old boob tube may be just the answer.
Encouraging programs such as Bits and
Bytes , especially interactive ones complete
with study materials, may be just what's
needed to get the machine out of the closet
and get the frustrated owner to try again.
PBS nationwide is airing several
television series about computers. Bits,
Bytes and Buzzwords , a five-part series of
half-hour programs, is a no-nonsense
introduction to word processing and other
business and educational uses. Computers
at Work: Concepts and Applications is
fifteen half hours designed to aid viewers'
understanding of computer-based systems
and their applications.
The Computer Programme, a BBC
production, in ten half-hour programs,
presents the basic concepts of computers
and their applications, each with a theme
illustrated by examples of computers at
work in the real world. Making the Micro,
another BBC production and a sequel to
The Computer Programme, is ten half-hour
programs designed to teach viewers how to
use a microcomputer.
The New Literacy: An Introduction to
Computers is a set of twenty-six half-hour
programs providing a comprehensive
overview of electronic data processing,
computer hardware and software systems,
and developments in the further
advancements of information processing.
Making It Count, produced by Boeing
Computer Services, consists of twenty-three
half-hour programs about hardware,
software, programming, and data
processing.
Educators may be particularly interested
in these programs, and so should those
folks with PCs now serving as plant stands.
Call your local public television station to
find out if and when any of these programs
are scheduled for viewing in your area.
Now all we need is a series on some of
the nitty-gritty stuff — like why your
modem cable doesn't work; why, despite
fifteen tries and instructions followed to a T,
you get an error message instead of a
printout; and what to do when the
manufacturers of your peripherals go belly-
up. The answers to those problems
probably just aren't suited to prime time. ▲
Introducing
I.R Magazette
Our Magazine On Diskette Is More
Than Just^ Bunch of Programs. , '
i-
■
I B. Magazette is a new form of
J WL • communication that is an
exciting, entertaining way to build your
program library, sharpen your skills
and have fun while expanding the
usefulness of your PC,
Each issue contains an assort¬
ment of detailed step-through tutorials,
programs, utilities, hints, reader con¬
tributed material, even music and
games. Always included is a major
program, a demonstration version of
commercially available soft-ware, or
freeware. Our monthly diskette provides
current hands-on experience.
Current issues of I.B. Magazette
are available at your local computer
store. Or order a 3-issue trial subscrip¬
tion using the coupon below.
Mark issues desired I.B. Magazette
and send your check I 306 Petroleum Tower
for total purchase to: Shreveport. La. 71101
REOUIRED: IBM-PC-64 K & ONE DRIVE OR IBM XT
□ CONTRIBUTING USER
(Current Issue & Mailer) _ $15
□ TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION
(Next 3 issues) .
□ ANNUAL (next 12 issues) _
Foreign: Annual Subscriptions only @ $160 (U.S.).
Airmail add $35 (U.S.)
NAME
ADDRESS
CTTY
□ CHECK
CARD # _
_ $40
$150
□ VISA
STATE ZIP
□ MASTERCARD
- Exp -
For Phone Orders: (318) 222-8088
or (318) 797-5991
USER CONTRIBUTED SOFTWARE AND
FREEWARE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED ON DISK.
IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 47
If ' J#'
A Rose is a a ;|§
; ■ ' ■ Rose is a Rose is a v S
li| by Terry Tinsley Datz and E Lloyd Datz
Volkswriter Gets a Tune-up, Palantir an Update
ust like its four-
I wheeled name-
sake, Volkswriter
is a classic. Reli¬
able, easy to learn, and inexpensive, it rolled
off the assembly line just in time to provide an
alternative to the fickle Easy Writer 1 and the
forbidding WordStar . Since then, plenty of
other word processors have entered the race,
each sporting more exotic features than the
last. But all the while Volkswriter has kept
chugging along.
Now, with all those miles behind it,
Volkswriter has finally gotten a well-deserved
tune-up in the form of Volkswriter Deluxe.
That doesn't mean, however, that the original
Volkswriter is headed for the junkyard; it's still
available for those who want to travel econ¬
omy class.
If you're a Volkswriter fan, you'll be happy
to learn that Deluxe is cast from the same
mold. It shares its predecessor's uncluttered
screens and many of the same key assign¬
ments. Also passed on intact is the gentle style
that comes back with "Beg your pardon" when
you've done something uncomputable.
Overall Design. How does Deluxe outper¬
form the old-model Volkswriter 7 For starters,
it's more generous in terms of file size, which it
restricts not to the amount of RAM you have
but to the amount of space you have on disk. It
also find yourself reaching for F10, the panic
button, which cancels the command in
progress, just as it does in Volkswriter .
Text Entry and Editing. The text-entry
screen is clear except for a single inverse-video
line at the bottom. Here Deluxe displays the
name of the file you're editing, the cursor's po¬
sition (column, line, and page number), and
messages and prompts. Volkswriter users will
notice that the "gas gauge," which shows you
the percentage of memory available, is miss¬
ing — and for good reason: With Deluxe, you
don't have to quit editing when you run out of
memory.
Deluxe provides a nice assortment of cursor
moves. The arrow keys speed the cursor along
Verbatim Diskettes
We re SJB. One of the fastest
growing distributors In the
country. And the reasons are
simple. Our prices are
competitive and we deliver fast.
SOFTWARE HOUSES:
Blank'n Bulk Available
Call today about our quantity pricing
Dealer inquiries invited
C.O.D. accepted
VJSA/MC accepted
SJB DISTRIBUTORS INC.
3524 Dividend Drive
Garland, Texas 75042
(800) 527-4893 or
(800) 442-1048 In Texas
does on-screen formatting, showing you such
things as page breaks and special printing
effects (underscoring and boldfacing). Among
the other new features are a special mode for
moving columns, horizontal scrolling capabil¬
ity (to two hundred fifty columns), and addi¬
tional cursor controls. Also new is a notepad
file that's handy for jotting down phone mes¬
sages or bright ideas that occur to you while
editing. And, last but not least, Deluxe has a
feature called TextMerge, which provides a
simple way to deal with form letters and mail¬
ing labels.
The last item on Deluxe's main menu, H for
Help, brings up a description of each of the
other eleven options. Although you have to re¬
turn to the main menu for a few tasks — to dis¬
play the file directory, to rename or delete a
file, or to use TextMerge — you can change for¬
mats, print, and save your work from within
the editor via the function keys.
The function keys work overtime with De¬
luxe ; the program uses them — in finger-twist¬
ing combos with control, alt, and shift — for
everything except a few embedded commands
that control formatting and merging. Since it
takes a while to get a handle on which combi¬
nations do what. Deluxe provides an optional
help menu, a seven-line summary of all possi¬
ble function-key combinations. Hit Fl and the
help menu pops up at the top of the editing
screen; hit Fl again and it goes away. You'll
by character and line; when combined with the
control key, they take you backward and for¬
ward by word. Unlike most other word proc¬
essors, Deluxe has no qualms about letting you
move the cursor past the end of a line into no¬
text land. In fact, if you get carried away with
the right-arrow key, you can travel all the way
out to column 250, which is Deluxe' s limit for
horizontal scrolling.
For long-distance cursor moves, you use
the home key, either by itself or in combination
with other cursor keys. For example, by hitting
home followed by the left or right arrow, you
can jump to the first or last character on the
current line. Similarly, home plus the up or
down arrow takes you to the top or bottom of
the screen, leaving the cursor's horizontal posi¬
tion unchanged. Home also performs on its
own: Two presses takes you to the top left cor¬
ner of the screen; three presses puts you back
at the beginning of your file. The end key
works much the same way as home, but in the
opposite direction.
With the page-up and page-down keys, you
can scroll vertically by half screenfuls, or by
whole screenfuls if you tap home first. What's
new is that, by combining these keys with the
control key, you can scroll through your file a
page at a time, stopping at the top of each
page.
That's not all. The function keys also get
into the cursor act. F3 toggles you between the
48 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
.<i>
“WHY PAY MORE’’
COMPARE THESE PRICES
MC-P APPLICATIONS
Brings Software & Hardware
At Unbeatable Prices
'&»
r? «
SOFTWARE
LIST OUR
ASHTON TATE
dBase I! . S 700 $385
Financial Planner . 700 452
Friday . ... 295 175
CONTINENTAL
Home Accountant . 150 105
FOX & GELLER Quick Code 295 174
FUNK SOFTWARE Sideways 60 45
HOWARDSOFT
Heal Estate Analyzer II . 250 165
HUMAN SOFT DB Plus . 89
LIFEBOAT SYSTEMS
Lattice XT Compiler . 500 325
LIFETREE Volkswriter Deluxe .... 175
LIVING VIDEOTEXT
Think Tank . 195 125
LOTUS - 1-2-3 . 495 299
MICROPRO Spell Star . 250 162
Mail Merge. . . . 250 162
Super Sort . 250 149
Calc Star . . . 145 86
Info Star . 495 320
Word Star Pro w/Correctstar 695 369
MICRORIM R Base 4000 495 325
MICHOSTUFF Crosstalk 195 109
MICROSOFT
Muitiplan . 250 159
Flight Simulator . 50 35
Multitool Word W/Mouse 475 295
Pascal Compiler . 350 245
C Compiler 500 325
PETER NORTON
Peter Norton Utility . . 80 55
PBL CORPORATION
Personal Investor . . . 145 98
PEACHTREE Peach Pack . 595 249
ROSESOFT Prokey . 95
SATELLITE Word Perfect . 495 325
SOFTWARE DIMENSIONS
Accounting Plus
GL. Aflr AP, PR, INV— Each 599 399
SOFTWARE PRODUCT INTERNATIONAL
Open Access ........... . 595 369
SOFTWARE PUBLISHING
pfs:Ffle . . . 140 89
Pfs;Report . . 125 79
SOFTWQRP SYSTEMS
Multimate . .... . 495 275
SORCIM SuperCalc II ... 295 175
SuperCalc 111 . 395 239
Super Writer.... . . . ... 295 205
STATE OF THE ART (FM Series)
GL AP, AR. INV, PR— Ea. .. 595 375
VISICORP Visicalc IV . 250 175
Visifile 300 195
VisiTrend/PJot . 300 195
VisiSchedule,,,.... . - . 300 195
Monthly Specials
Tandon TM 100-2
*209 00
AST SIX PAK (64K)
*265°°
AMDEK 31 OA
*169°°
MULTIMATE
S275D0
IRMA 3270
$104500
OPEN ACCESS
*36900
Value Paks
LOTUS 1-2-3
*299°°
PLANTRONIC ♦
PRINCETON GRAPHIC
s86900
R BASE 4000 *
MULTITOOL WORD
W/MOUSE
*585°°
LOTUS 1-2-3 +
HERCULES CARD
s66900
ORDER STATUS &
TECHNICAL
SUPPORT - CALL
(406) 293-3360
Call for Hardware &
Software Prices Not
Listed This Ad
Used PC's & Apples
Bought & Sold
HARDWARE
LIST OUR
HAYES MICROCOMPUTER PRODUCTS
Stack Smart Mod 300 $289 $199
Smart Mod 1200 B {IBM) .... 599 429
Smart Mod 1200 . 699 495
MOUSE SYSTEMS
P C. Mouse w/Software . 295 219
NOVATION
J-Cat . . . . 149 105
Smart-Cat 103/212 . . . 595 445
Smart-Cat 103 . .. . 249 187
KRAFT & TG JOYSTICKS . 70 39
ELECTRONIC PROTECTION DEVICES
Orange . 140 94
Peach . .... 98 64
IBM PC 64K/2 Drives/
Controller Cd . . 2169
IBM XT . 4399
AST RESEARCH
Megaplus 64 K . . . 395 265
Six Pac Plus 64K . . . 395 265
QUADRAM
Quadboard II 64K . 395 275
Quadcolor I . . 295 219
Quad 512 + 64K . 325 245
Quadfink . . , . , 680 525
STB COLOR GRAPH IX CARD 375
TANDON
TM 100-2 Drive . 395 209
TALL GRASS
Hard Disc& Tape, 12 Mgb . 3495 2995
TEAC HALF HEIGHT . . 199
PEGASUS
Hard Disk 10 Mgb (internal) 1195
PRINTERS
Epson FX 100 . 735
IBM Parallel Printer Cable , 50 37
NEC 7730 HQ Parallel . 2595 2295
Ok id at a 92 . 699 459
Qume 1140 plus . 1685 1525
MONITORS
Amdek MAI Board . 599 459
Amdek 12“ 310A 230 169
Amdek Color II RGB Hi-Res 529 399
Hercules Graphics Card .... 499 359
Princeton RGB Hi-Res..... . 795 495
Plantronics Color Card . 595 385
USI P13 . 249 149
International
Dealer Inquiries
Welcomed
MC-P APPLICATIONS, Inc.
Strip A 114
e. * 4 * *v * * 1 USA Phonp (408} 293 3360
* « *1 w Mr pa uO
***■*■■" ° r Mon Sal
it n • n?q fUfia
TERMS: All prices subjecl to change. Cashier’s check/ MO/
Bank Transfer Allow time tor company or personal checks to
clear. Prices reflect cash prepaid discount. VISA /MASTER
CARD / COD /PO s 3°'". California residents add sales lax.
SHIPPING: $4 per item for UPS surface (SB lor Slue Label);
Monitors S20, Printers S25. within continental USA.
beginning and end of the current line (a quick
return ticket when you’ve scrolled beyond
eighty columns), and contro!-F7 takes you di¬
rectly to any page or line in your document.
Deluxe1 s default mode for text entry is over¬
type, which means that new text automatically
replaces everything in the cursors path. As
you'd expect, you hit the insert key to get into
insert mode. Deluxe lets you know you've
switched modes by changing the cursor from
an underscore to a square. To make room for
your addition, it pushes existing text ahead one
line. When you've finished inserting, you hit
FI again to go back to overtype mode. There's
no way to stay in insert mode; Deluxe has the
rude habit of kicking you back into overtype
mode the second you enter another editing
command or when you get to the end oh the
paragraph— whichever comes first.
Deluxe gives you several options for delet¬
ing, The backspace key deletes to the left of the
cursor, and the delete key erases what's under
the cursor. Holding the delete key pulls in char¬
acters from the right— but only until there are
no more characters on the line; text on the line
below stays where it is.
Larger deletions involve the use of the F4
key. By itself, F4 deletes the word at the cursor
position, along with any trailing spaces. When
the cursor sits within a word, F4 deletes only
►
Pascal and C Programmers
& Blaise Computings productivity tools allow Pascal and C programmers
to develop reliable software taking lull advantage of the capabilities of
the IBM PC and XT. Support for Microsoft and IBM Pascal: and Micro¬
soft (Lattice! C or CI-C86 is provided. Because all routines are carefully
constructed in the language for which they were designed, the tools
provide an excellent model. Pascal procedure support is implemented
as separately compiled units, and the C functions are delivered as part
of a function library. Now you can write your applications rapidly in
the two most powerful languages available for the IBM PC. All pack-
ages come with a comprehensive Reference Manual, extensive exam¬
ples and sample programs.
▼
TOOLS All Source Code is included
Total string capability, complete screen access, keyboard handling a graphics interlace,
access to all BIOS Functions. and much more are provkted In over 40 routines AH routines
are carefully crafted and documented to give you Lhe information and Flexibility you need.
A general Macro Assembler BIOS gate allows you to access any BIOS function from Pascal
or C. and demonstrates how to interface assembly language routines. Everyone using Pas¬
cal or C should have TOOLS . User Manual only. $10.
T
TOOLS 2 All Source Code is included
The power of 005 2 0 is supported using high level Pascal procedures or C functions.
Program chaining, DOS internal and external command execution, use of all available
memory, extended file handling, and other utilities are some of the leatures provided A
general DOS gale allows you to access any DOS function iroin Pascal or C. User Manual
only. $30.
Y
VIEW MANAGER Source Code available
VIEW MANAGER is a screen support system of a mainframe lor the IBM Personal Com¬
puter. VIEW MANAGER is a menu driven, screen oriented system allowing you to develop
user oriented screen interfaces. Screens are constructed with a true Screen Painter sup¬
porting any attribute or color, and the screens are stored efficiently in a Screen Database
Database utilities allow you to copy screens to stand-alone databases and to archive
screens, VIEW/UBRARY supports access to screens and true block mode data capture and
display from application programs. Available soon will be VIEW/LJBRARY for Microsoft
(Lattice! C, The source to the procedure library is available for an additional $150.00
Demonstration diskette and User Manual $1$.
► VIEW MANAGER. TOOLS and TOOLS 2 run on the IBM Personal Com
puterand XT. TOOLS 2 requires DOS 2.0; TOOLS and VIEW MAN-
AGER can be used with any version of DOS. Specify If you wish Pascal
(Microsoft and IBM) or Microsoft (Lattice) C versions. Blaise Com¬
puting can also provide you with the Microsoft Pascal and C compilers
with qualified support. Cali or write for details.
TOOLS 125,00
TOOLS 2 luu.oa
VIEW MAN ACER 2 7 5 Gu
VIEW MAN ACER (with Library Source! 425.00
MS- Pasca I Com pile r 275. 00
Microsoft C Compiler 1 50 00
♦
BLAISE COMPUTING INC.
2034 Blake St Berkeley. C A 94 704
4IS/S40-1441
the characters to the right of the cursor. Com¬
bined with alt and control, F4 works on lines;
ControLF4 deletes the entire line and alt-F4
erases from the cursor to the end of the line.
There's no restore command, however; if you
wipe out a whole line when you intended to
erase only a couple of words {something that's
easy to do), you're ont of luck.
Unfortunately, Deluxe bucks the trend of
other new word processors by not providing
automatic paragraph reform. If an insertion or
deletion leaves your paragraph ragged, you
have to reform manually by hitting F8. Every¬
thing from the cursor position to the end of the
paragraph shuffles into place in the tradition of
WbrdStars controbB, but it does so a little
more slowly.
Deluxe has two modes for block opera¬
tions, one for regular text and one for columns.
The column mode is entirely new, and the text
mode has been improved to work with partial
lines {the original Volkswriter limits cut-anch
paste operations to whole lines of text). No
matter which mode you're using, you start by
marking the blocks beginning and end. For
regular text, you put the cursor over the first
character in the block and press F5; then you
move to the last character and hit F6. Deluxe
inserts bright triangles as markers. If you're
working with columns, you mark the upper
left and lower right comers using control-FS
and control-Fb. In column mode, Deluxe in¬
serts arrows as markers.
Once you've done the defining, Deluxe
handles blocks the same way — whether you're
working with normal text or columns. To de¬
lete the entire block, just hit alt-FS; to copy or
move it, position the cursor at the new location
and press alt-F5 oralt-F6. Once the mission has
been accomplished, Deluxe whisks the mark¬
ers off the screen, causing the copied or moved
block to fade into the surrounding text. Not
only does this make it hard to tell if everything
went as planned, but, if you decide to put eve
rything back the wav it was, you have to rein¬
sert the block markers.
When it enmes to search and replace. De¬
lta e unfortunately offers no improvement
over Volkswriter; it's still literal to a fault. You
can't search for capitalized and uncapitalized
occurrences of a word at the same time, nor
can you ask that only whole words be located.
To find all occurrences of a word, capitalized
or not, ynu either have to do two separate
searches or else enter the word with the first
letter missing. The same limitations apply to
the replace feature, which means that, when
doing global replacements, you can t match
the case of each replacement w ord.
Although De/iae won't search backward, it
compensates by starting its search at the cursor
position, working its way to the end of the hie
and then looping back to the beginning to
cover text that's behind the cursor. Only when
50 ]um 1984 Sof talk for the IBM Persons! Computer
NOW COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
COSTS LESS THAN A DRAFTING TABLE.
For only 51200 -less than the price of a top-quality drafting
table-you can add computer-aided design (CAD) capabilities
to your IBM PC or compatible personal computer.
Introducing CADPLAN. “ a complete user-friendly computer-aided design package
for architects , facilities planners, engineers and designers that can increase your productivity by
reducing the time you spend on tedious, repetitive tasks and costly design changes .
CADPLAN combines the power and performance of large-scale CAD systems
with the ease of use and low cost of the IBM PC. CADPLAN includes many advanced capabifities
found in costfy CAD systems , such as real-time " rubber-banding d muiti-fayering and symbol
libraries. An optional database extraction feature allows you to perform job costing and analysis
as an integral part of the design process.
The CADPLAN design package is part of a growing family of easy-to-use CAD
software from Persona! CAD Systems r Inc. Software for logic design and printed-circuit board
layout is also available, with more CAD products to follow.
Personal CAD Systems is committed to providing the level of after-sales
service and support you need to get your job done quickly and efficiently. Examples of this
commitment include CADMATEp a self-paced , step-by-step tutorial that teaches you how to
use CADPLAN [ and CADDRAFTp an entry level drawing and drafting system l We also
support a wide variety of input and output devices ,
To find out more about the benefits of iow-cost computer-aided design,
write or calf toll-free 800-882-7535 (in Caiifornia. 800-635-Q306). and ask for our free
brochure , 1 Tools For Modem DesignF
CADPLAN. It wifi revolutionize the way you work and think .
(406)
981 University /ti-enun?
Los Gate sl Catit. 95030
35^7793 T£L£X 278&E&
P
Pterjonaif CAD Inc CADPLAN. G.o.QMaTF sntf CAQDftAr T are fra ctema/Ks of CAD Systems, Inc IBM ts a
trademark of Intern 'atK-nsl Su&nQss Machos Corporation.
WITH IBM PC AT THE OFFICE
AND Kjr AT YOUR HOUSE,
YOU CAN TAKE WORK HOME
ON YOUR LITTLE FINGER.
4
Many business people already
know about the IBM® Personal
Computer family.
Many are now hearing about
its new member, the IBM PC/r,
And some have already discovered
how PC and PC/r can work together.
THE JOT OF O
PERSONAL COMMUTING
PCyr bears a strong resemblance to the
rest of the family.
If you know how to operate
PC or PC/XT, you can operate
PC/r easily. If you have programs
for PC or PC/XT, you'll find
many of them will run on PCyr,
Now, much of what you start at the office,
you can finish at home, and vice versa.
And while you’re at the office, your
family will find plenty to do with PCyr,
THE BRIGHT LITTLE
FAMILY ADDITION
THAT CAN GROW UP FAST
Diskette-drive systems include a program
that allows users to explore computer
fundamentals at their own pace. And to get
PCyr up and running from
the very first day, a
sample diskette with
'eleven useful mini-programs
also included.
HOME ECONOMICS;
IBM DISKETTE COMPUTING
FOR ABOUT $1300
PCyr is the most affordable
of the IBM personal computers.
A diskette-drive model
with a 128KB user memory is
$1300. An expandable 64KB cassette/
cartridge model is about $700. (Prices apply at
IBM Product Centers. Prices may vary at
other stores.)
For a demonstration, visit an authorized
IBM PCyr dealer or an IBM Product Center.
And you can find the store nearest you with
your little finger. Just dial 1-800-1 BM- PCJR.
In Alaska and Hawaii, 1-800-447-0890.
about
PCyr is a powerful tool for modern times.
With easy-to-follow new IBM Personal
Computer programs, and with options like a r
printer and an internal modem for telecom- t
munications, it can handle a grear variety of jobs.
Children can learn new ways of learning,
and make short work of homework. Adults can
keep track of household expenses, write letters,
file rax data, plug into information networks.
And everyone can enjoy challenging new
cartridge games.
IBM designed PCyr with lots of bright
ideas to make computing easier.
The “Freeboard”— a keyboard that
doesn’t need a connecting cord — is easy to get
comfortable with.
Built-in picture instructions can help
the first-rime user get started.
ae\risoft;
All the hits your IBM PC
is missing.
If you thought you’d never find fun games for your
hardworking IBM PC, happy days are here. Because now
ATARISOFT brings you action-packed arcade hits for your Li
buttoned-up IBM PC.
Pick from Pac-ManJ Donkey Kong-* by Nintendo; H
Centipede?" Defender/ Joust? Jungle Hunt? Moon Patrol? W
Pole Position? Galaxian? Ms. Pac-Man,1 and Battlezone™ With*
many more to come.
So dust off your joystick (or if you don’t have a stick, you
can play with a flick of your fingers on your keyboard) and
ask your dealer for all the ATARISOFT hits. The software your
hardware’s been waiting for.
IBM s a registered trademark of IBM Corp. Th& software is manufactured by ATARI, -Inc lor use on, ihe IBM PC computer and is not
made, sponsored, authorized or approved by International Business Machines Corporation 1 Trademarks of Baity Mfg Co.
Sublicensee! to ATARI, Inc. by Namco- America. Inc 2 Trademarks and © Nintendo 1981. 1983 3. Trademarks and© Wiliams 1980.
1983, manufactured under license from Wiliams Electronics 4 Trademark and © of Taito America Corporalion 1982. 5 Engineered
h n id designed by Mamoo Ltd. . manufactured under license by ATARI I nc Trademark and ■© Namco 1 9Q3 Aran*
you ask for a global replacement does it start at
the beginning of your file and proceed straight
through to the end.
Formatting and Printing. The good news
about Deluxe s formatting capability is that
what you see on-screen comes close to match¬
ing the final printed version. Unlike Volkswrit-
er, for example, which gives you no clue as to
where page breaks will occur. Deluxe displays
a single horizontal line at the bottom of each
page. Deluxe also makes an effort to display
most special printing effects. What it doesn't
show on-screen, however, is double spacing,
full justification, and, of course, proportional
spacing.
Another of Deluxe1 s strengths is that it lets
you work with a variety of formats without
making you redo your settings each time you
edit. Most of the format options are presented
to you in the format menu, which you can call
from either the main menu (by choosing F for
format selection) or the editor (by typing con-
trol-Fl). The format menu shows you the cur¬
rent settings for line spacing, lines per inch,
pitch, justification, proportional spacing, and
the like.
Once you have the settings the way you
want them. Deluxe gives you the option of us¬
ing them with the file you're editing or storing
them in their own file for later use. It's the latter
option that gives you the flexibility to switch
back and forth between several formats.
Whenever you retrieve a file from disk or
create a new file. Deluxe looks through the li¬
brary of formats stored on your data disk and
tries to match one of them to your document's
filename. First it looks for a format that
matches the filename itself; if such a format
isn't found, it looks for a format whose three-
character extension matches that of your docu¬
ment. For example, if you use the same format
for all the letters you write, you might want to
set up a format file named Vwformat.ltr. Then,
whenever you retrieved or created a file with
the extension .ltr. Deluxe would automatically
load the format file with the same extension.
If you're working on a document that has
its own special format — say, a proposal whose
filename is Proposal — you could name its for¬
mat Proposal. fmt. In this case, every time you
retrieved Proposal, Deluxe would automati¬
cally load Proposal, fmt. If you use the same
format for all your files, you can give the for¬
mat file the generic name Vw.fmt, and Deluxe
will load it for you to use with everything.
Deluxe also allows you to retrieve other
formats when you're in the middle of editing.
Suppose you want to type a long quotation
and you want it single-spaced and indented
from both margins. You call the format menu
with control-Fl, choose R for retrieve , and
type the name of the format file that contains
the appropriate settings; the new settings will
take effect at that point in your document.
Although tab and margin settings aren't
part of the format menu. Deluxe stores them
with your format file; Deluxe assumes that the
tab settings in force when you name and store
a new format should be part of that format.
The advantage of this approach is that once
you go to the trouble of setting up tabs for a
complex table you can use them over and over
again on other tables.
Changing margins and tab settings is easy
enough. Just hit F9 to call the ruler line to the
top of the screen and follow Deluxe s prompts.
The only hitch is that all tabs are regular type¬
writer tabs; Deluxe simply doesn't do decimal
tabs, which is surprising in a program that's
sophisticated enough for the office.
Another thing that Deluxe doesn't do is
provide help with hyphenation. You can't even
insert ghost hyphens so that polysyllabic
words will split should they fall at the end of a
line. Without benefit of hyphens, right mar¬
gins can become downright tattered (as evi¬
denced by Deluxe's own manual); even worse
things happen with full justification, since all
those extra spaces are spread throughout the
line.
When it comes to special printing effects,
however, Deluxe comes through with flying
colors. For one thing, it's consistent. It assigns
all printing effects to the function keys com¬
bined with the shift key. For example, shift-F7
turns boldface on and off; shift-F9 does the
same with underscore. If you forget to shut off
one of these features, Deluxe automatically
cancels it at the end of the paragraph (or at the
end of the line in the case of superscripts or
subscripts).
On a monochrome display. Deluxe shows
both underlining and boldface; strikethrough
(also called overstrike) grabs your attention by
blinking on and off. Deluxe also inserts mark¬
ers (arrows for boldface and triangles for un¬
derlining, for example) to show where special
printing features start and stop; this feature
helps, for instance, when you want to delete
underlining but leave the underlined word
alone. If you want to see your text without the
symbols, hit control~F3; the markers will tem¬
porarily disappear, reappearing as soon as you
press any other key.
Also supported are most other printing
effects that your printer may be capable of —
italics, compressed or expanded print, ribbon
shift, and the like. Deluxe assigns these fea¬
tures to keys F3 through F6. However, you'll
have to experiment on your own to see the
effect of each of these keys, since the key as¬
signments differ from printer to printer.
Deluxe uses embedded commands to con¬
trol such things as text for running headers and
footers, forced page breaks, and page number¬
ing. You type these commands at the left mar¬
gin, preceded by two periods, much in the
manner of WordStars dot commands. The
Software
n Stuff
SERVICE N SATISFACTION
SOFTWARE
• KNOWLEDGEMAN (MDBS)
CALL
• LOTUS 1-2-3
CALL
• VOLKSWRITER DELUXE
$209.00
(Lifetree Software)
• EASYWRITER II COMBO
$299.00
(IUS)
• WORD WITH MOUSE
$369.00
(Microsoft)
. WORD VISION
$ 65.00
(Simon & Schuster)
• OFFICE WRITER
$259.00
(Office Solutions)
• MULTI-MATE (Soft Word)
$349.00
• CHARTMASTER
$289.00
(Decision Resources)
• SIGNMASTER
$199.00
(Decision Resources)
. PROOFREADER
$ 45.00
(Aspen Software)
• GRAMMATIK
$ 65.00
(Aspen Software)
• DATA BASE 11 (Alpha)
CALL
• ULTRAFILE (Continental)
$149.00
. SUPERCALC 3
$299.00
(Sorcim)
• COMPUTER SAT (HBJ)
$ 68.00
• FRIENDLY WARE, Arcade
CALL
(Friendly Soft. Inc )
• PETER NORTON UTILITIES
$ 62.00
• FLIGHT SIMULATOR
$ 44.95
(Microsoft)
• GAMES:
SUSPENDED (Infocom)
$ 39.95
MILLIONAIRE (Blue Chip)
$ 52.00
ASYLUM (Med Systems)
$ 34.95
EXECUTIVE SUITE (Armonk)
$ 32.95
FROGGER, (Sierra on Line)
$ 29.00
PINBALL (Sublogic)
$ 34.00
PC MAN (Orion)
$ 28.95
WORD CHALLENGE
$ 34.95
(Proximity)
•THE INSTRUCTOR
$ 39.00
(Individual)
• PROFESSOR DOS (Individual)
$ 49.00
• PROKEY, (Rose Soft)
CALL
• PFS FILE, PFS WRITE
$ 99.00
(Software Publishing)
• PFS REPORT
$ 89.00
(Software Publishing)
* DESK ORGANIZER
$209.00
(Conceptual Instruments)
• COPY II PC
$ 34.00
(Central Point Software)
• HAYES SMARTCOM II
$ 99.00
(Hayes)
• MULTIPLAN
$159.00
(Microsoft)
• MEMORY SHIFT
$ 82.00
(N American Business)
• EXECUVISION (Prentice Hall)
CALL
• ENERGRAPHICS (Enertromcs)
CALL
• FANCY FONT (Softcraft)
$159.00
• FRIDAY! (Ashton-Tate)
$229.00
STUFF:
ELEPHANT DISKETTES
Package of 10 - SS/DD
$ 25.00
Package of 10 - DS/DD
$ 35.00
• FLIP “n" FILE
$ 25.00
• COVERS FOR THE IBM PC
$ 11.95
FREE with order over $75.00
plastic Library Case —
holds 10 diskettes
CORPORATE
ACCOUNTS
Professionally Handled
CALL OR WRITE FOR MORE INFORMATION
1ST CLASS SHIPPING INCLUDED.
NO EXTRA CHARGES
P.0. Box 795095
Oallas, Texas 75379
|2M| 4581716
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 55
YOUR SPREADSHEETS
CAN LOOK PERFECT
AND STILL BE
WRONG.
You know how it is.
You spend hours building up a
spreadsheet. Inserting data. Changing
figures. Adding new formulas
suggested by others,
When you’re finished, everything
looks perfect. But is it?
Are those totals really right?
What formulas produced that
bottom line?
Is it out? And if so, by how much'
The only way to be sure.
if you use Lotus™ 1-2*3™ ' VteiCakf
nr Super Calc?1 you need
The Spreadsheet AUDITOR,
Why? Because only the AUDITOR
allows you to quickly and simply
prim nut every formula in your
spreadsheet.
Formulas are displayed in a two-
dimensional grid that matches the
layout of your spreadsheet exactly
Coordinates are printed, images are
numbered,
So you can refer to any section
instantly — identify changing
patterns — and spot errors or
omissions, without having to move
your cursor from cell to cell,
For Lotus users, the AUDITOR
even provides a complete listing of
all named and special ranges.
Quick, simple, sure.
You don’t have to waste time altering
column widths. Or worry about
clipping important formulas.
The AUDITOR scales columns
automatically
k gives you the option of wrap¬
ping long formulas into manageable
columns that are easy to read
A permanent record.
The AUDITOR allows you to
document any spreadsheet, and
create a permanent record.
it lets you examine the logic
behind spreadsheets "handed down*
by previous users.
And generates formats that can be
followed by other users later.
To get your copy.
Ask your local dealer lor the Auditor If
they don’t have it yet, call our toll-free
order number 800-645-5501 ,
(\\c accept VISA and MasterCard)
Or send a check or money order tor
S99 to:
Consumer Software Inc
Dept. B, Ste. 106 1 31a East Holly Street
Bellingham, Wj. 9S225
Please specify whether you have an
IBM/PC or an Apple 11 or lie
Other company benefits.
In companies where several people
are using spreadsheets, a series of
listings can grow to become an
application’s library.
The AUDITOR makes sure
everyone knows what spreadsheets
have been developed, so no-on c
wastes time reinventing the wThccl.
A small price to pay.
Best of all the AUDITOR costs jusL
599.
And that’s a small price to pay for
spreadsheets you know arc right.
THE
For more information;
contact Consumers Software at
(604)688-4548
(Dealer enquiries welcome,)
™ Signified manuilicLureTs' Lryc.lum.trk*,
^Signifies* manufacturer^ registered tr;tdum:irk
SPREADSHEET
FOR SPREADSHEETS YOU CAN COUNT ON
two periods tell Deluxe to treat any text that
follows as a command instead of as part of
your text. For example, to set up a running
head for a book chapter, you might type
. .Head03LChapter 5 . This particular com¬
mand tells Deluxe that you want Chapter 5 to
appear as a running head, spaced down three
lines from the top of the page and aligned at the
left margin. By replacing the L in the above
command with an R, C, or A, you can have
headers or footers aligned against the right
margin, centered, or set flush-left and flush-
right on alternate pages.
If you want page numbers printed, you in¬
sert the symbols ## within either a header or
footer. For example, to have page numbers
centered three lines up from the bottom of each
page, you'd use the command .. Foot63C ##. As
in WordStar, you can prevent headers from ap¬
pearing on the first page of your manuscript by
embedding the header command anywhere af¬
ter the first line of text.
Still other embedded commands allow you
to make the printer pause during a printout,
insert nonprinting comment lines, and stop
printing before the end of the file. You can also
do boilerplating by embedding the command
..Print followed by the name of the file you
want inserted. This command tells Deluxe to
stop printing the current file and start printing
the file you name, which in this case is a
boilerplate paragraph you've stashed away on
disk. Similarly, by embedding the command
..Format, you can have Deluxe retrieve a for¬
mat from disk at print time, a handy option
when you want to change formats in the mid¬
dle of your document. In fact, by combining
the commands ..Print and ..Format, you can
create a master file that links several files,
changing formats between each file.
When you're ready to print, you return to
the main menu and choose the print option. To
print only a portion of your file, just tell De¬
luxe the number of the line or page on which
you want the printing started. Or, if you want
to do a quick print beginning at the cursor po¬
sition, you can avoid going back to the main
menu by hitting alt-Fl from within the editor.
File Handling. The good news about De¬
luxe’s file handler is that file size is no longer
limited by your system's memory. When the
file you're working on fills the available RAM,
which happens after about seven double¬
spaced pages on a 128K system. Deluxe creates
a spill file that holds anything more you add up
to the amount of space you have on disk. Since
working with spill files means you can't switch
disks during the editing process. Deluxe gives
you the option of doing without spill files. This
isn't a bad idea if you have 256K, since with
that much memory you can edit up to about
forty pages before you run out.
In addition to the standard renaming and
deleting utilities, Deluxe' s file options include
SAVE MORE THAN EVER ON..
. 3M Scotch* DISKETTES
AND OTHER COMPUTER NEEDS!
LIFETIME WARRANTY!
3M BULK DISKETTES’
AT TREMENDOUS SAVINGS!
These are genuine 3M diskettes with a lifetime warranty. But they are bulk packed in cartons of 50
with separate white Tyvec envelopes. No identification labels, write protect tabs or cartons are
provided! A great buy for volume users.
$160
| Qty. 50
ea.
SW'SSDD
5V4"DSDD.
$902
^ |£gg Qty. 50
5V4w SSDD-96TPI . $2.20
5V4" DSDD-96TPI
.$2.75
All have reinforced hub.
SOFT SECTOR ONLY!
(for IBM, APPLE, KAYPRO, DEC and about 99% of all computers.)
Must be ordered in multiples of 50!
BOXED 3M DISKETTES
WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS!
Factory-fresh 3M packaging with envelopes, 3M logo labels, ID labels and write-protect tabs.
$■185 1 — $035
| Qty. 20 5V4" DSDD — ► Qty. 20
5V4" SSDD-96TPI . $2.60 8"SSSD . $2.05
5V4W DSDD-96TPI . $3.25 8"SSDD . $2.50
8" DSDD . $3.10
Minimum order of 20 diskettes. Additional diskettes in multiples of 10.
3M HEADCLEANING KITS
Stop swearing and start cleaning. This non-abrasive
cleaning kit has everything you need for thirty applica¬
tions.
$23.00 + $1.50 Shpng.
SAVE MONEY WITH A CLEAN COMPUTER!
INTRODUCING MINI-VAC
Most computer malfunctions are caused by dust. MINI-
VAC is ideal for cleaning keyboards, screens, drives and
printers. (Great for photo equipment, too!) Equipped
with an easy-empty bag, two directional wands and two
fine-brush nozzles. Don’t compute without it. (Requires
9-volt battery which is not included.)
$21.95 4 $3.00 Shpng.
AT LAST: A DISK DRIVE DIAGNOSTICS
SYSTEM THAT WORKS!
The Dymek Recording Interchange Diagnostic (RID) is a
professional, but easy to use, drive diagnostic disk. It
tests drive speed, radial position, hysteresis, write func¬
tion, erase crosstalk, signal-to-noise and clamping. In
short, it’s a professional s system that will help you keep
your machine in prime condition... and avoid the evils of
data loss. _
$29.95 +$1.50 Shpng.
MEDIA-MATE 50:
A REVOLUTION IN DISKETTE STORAGE
Every once in a while, someone takes the simpie...and
makes it elegant. This unit holds 50 5V4W diskettes, has
grooves for easy stacking, nipples to keep diskettes from
slipping in the case and several other features. We like it.
$10.95 + $2.00 Shpng.
*
DISKETTE 70 STORAGE:
STILL A GREAT BUY
Dust-free storage for 70 5W
diskettes. Six dividers included.
An excellent value.
$14.95 + $3,00 Shpng.
PRINTER RIBBONS
AT BARGAIN PRICES.
EPSON MX-70/80 . $3.58 + .25 Shpng.
EPSON MX-100 . .. $8.99 + .25 Shpng.
Okidata Micro 04 . . $3.88 + .25 Shpng.
Diablo 630 Mylar . $2.60 + .25 Shpng.
Diablo 630 Nylon . $2.93 + .25 Shpng.
THE END TO RS-232
CABLE PROBLEMS: SMARTCABLE
Now interfacing almost any two RS-232 devices is
simple and quick. Just plug in SMARTCABLE and flip
two switches. The logic of both devices is figured out
immediately and you can get to work.
$79.95 + $1.50 Shpng.
Shipping: 5%' DISKETTES—Add $3.00 per 100 or fewer diskettes.
8“ DISKETTES — Add $4,00 per 100 or fewer diskettes. OTHER
ITEMS: Add shipping charges as shown in addition to diskette
shipping charges. Payment: VISA and Mastercard accepted. COO
orders only, add $3.00 handling charges. Taxes; Illinois residents,
please add 8% sales tax.
WE WILL BEAT ANY NATIONALLY ADVERTISED PRICE
ON THE SAME PRODUCTS ANO QUANTITIES!
Nationwide: 1-800-621-6827
Illinois: 1-312-944-2788
Hours: 9AM - 5PM Central Time
Minimum Order: $35.00
DISK WORLD!, Inc.
SUITE 4806
30 EAST HURON STREET
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611
Authorized Distributor
Information Processing Products
Softalk for the IBM. Personal Computer June 1984 57
Diskette
Drive
Alignment!
ReadiScope
ReadiScope is a comprehensive
diagnostic program that analyzes the
current status of a diskette drive.
A drive can be tested in seconds
without removal. Adjustments to head,
spindle hub alignment, and rotational
speed can be made in minutes without
special equipment.
■ Floppy drive testing and
alignment
■ No special equipment
needed
■ Drive can be tested while
installed:
-Under normal operating
conditions
-Saves removal time
■ Results presented graphically
■ Fast-1 minute for general
checkout
■ Works with single or double
sided drives
■ Ideal for use by:
-retail stores
-repair shops
-multi-PC user’s
-PC clubs
-users with critical data
■ Includes special
diagnostic diskette
Requires 48K IBM PC with one op¬
erating drive. Uses monochrome or
graphics display. $295 including
special diagnostic diskette.
Call about our other programs for the
PC:
• ReadiWriter
Powerful text formatter that is
compatible with GML and SCRIPT
• List & Letters
Mailing list option for ReadiWriter
• ReadiTerm
Flexible communications program
Visa, Mastercard or MO. Add $3 for
shipping. In CT, add 7.5% tax
Call 203-431-3521 or send your order
now to:
ReadiWare Systems, Inc.
Box 680B, W. Redding, CT 06896
inserting a new file at the cursor position and
saving your work and continuing to edit. You
can't, however, copy files or format a new disk
from within the program.
Notepad, a feature that's aimed at scratch¬
pad scribblers, allows you to write yourself
notes while editing. Instead of frantically
searching for paper and pencil when your bro¬
ker calls with a hot stock tip, for example, just
hit control-F2 and type. Deluxe will add to an
ongoing notepad file anything you type up un¬
til the next carriage return; to save a message
that extends past a carriage return, you insert
block markers (F5 and F6) to note its beginning
and end. You can have as many notepad files as
you want, and you can name them anything
that strikes your fancy— Scratch, Notes, Day¬
dreams, or whatever. Notepad files are also
handy for storing footnotes, which you can
print at the end of your document by means of
embedded commands.
Deluxe is flexible about automatic backup;
it's up to you to decide whether the increased
security is worth the extra disk space taken up
by such Hies. If you opt for automatic back¬
ups, every time you store an updated version
of your work to disk, Deluxe automatically
hangs on to the previous version by giving it
the .bak suffix.
For those users interested in having Deluxe
read the files of other software packages, the
manual provides a few specifics about integrat¬
ing files from 1-2-3, VisiCalc, SuperCalc, and
dBase II, If you're interested in converting
WordStar files to Deluxe format, there's a slick
utility that takes care of all WordStars quirks
down to the last dot command.
TextMerge. Another of Deluxes shiny new
features is TextMerge, a no-nonsense program
that makes quick work of form letters and
mailing labels.
The first step is to create a master docu¬
ment, which may be a form letter, a template
for mailing labels, or anything else you want to
merge data into. At the top of the master file,
you embed the command ..File, followed by a
list of variables — first name, last name, ad¬
dress, each separated by a reverse slash— that
correspond to the variables in your mailing
list. Then, if you're creating form letters, you
type the text for the letter with variable names
inserted everywhere you want data to be
merged; for mailing labels, you create the tem¬
plate by typing the variable names in the posi¬
tions at which you want them printed.
You create the mailing list itself by typing
all the data for each record (each person's
name and address, for example) on one line.
Although the one-line limit might sound mea¬
ger, don't forget that Deluxe can accommodate
a line length of up to two hundred fifty charac¬
ters. Extra spaces between variables are ig¬
nored, so to make your records more readable
you can set a series of tab stops.
When you're ready to merge data into your
master document, you call TextMerge from the
main menu and follow the prompts that ask
for the names of both your master and merge
files. Deluxe then proceeds to print a copy of
the master file for each entry in your mailing
list. If you'd like to print form letters for only a
portion of your mailing list entries, you can
enter the record number where you want to
take up merging.
Wir Sprechen Deutsch. Like the Interna¬
tional Edition of Volkswriter, Deluxe is well
versed in foreign languages; it comes ready to
write in English, German, French, Italian, and
Spanish. By combining the alt key with letters
and numbers, you can produce vowels with all
possible accents and umlauts, as well as for¬
eign currency symbols and any other lan¬
guage-specific characters. Deluxe is also
compatible with all foreign editions of the PC
and their corresponding versions of DOS.
Deluxe goes a step further and lets you re¬
define the keyboard any way you want by
building your own translation table. For exam¬
ple, statisticians or engineers might want to re¬
define a few keys for easy access to math and
Greek symbols. And if you're a fan of the
Dvorak keyboard, here's a do-it-yourself way
to make the switch.
You give your keyboard translation table a
filename that works much like a format file,
which means that Deluxe will automatically
load a different keyboard based on the kind of
work you're doing. This is a perfect solution if
you share a computer and the Deluxe package
with someone who doesn't use your special¬
ized keyboard.
Along the same lines, Deluxe allows you to
set up a printer translation table, which can
come in handy if your printer isn't up to pro¬
ducing accented letters, for example. In this
case, you'd string together the ASCII values
that tell your printer to print the character you
want accented, then back up a space, and then
print an accent. Although the manual devotes
an entire appendix to translation tables, you'll
still need some familiarity with your printer.
Documentation and Support. Deluxe' s
manual provides an introduction to the pro¬
gram, a reference section, an index, and seven
appendixes that cover everything from trans¬
lation tables to trouble-shooting — all this in a
slim one-hundred-fifty-page volume. What the
manual could use is a quick-reference section
for the function keys and maybe a few illustra¬
tions and sample screens.
Deluxe also comes with a series of tutorials
that reside entirely on disk. While their infor¬
mation is good, they're not very interactive.
Mostly, you just read from the screen and ex¬
periment on your own. You can, in fact, save
yourself a lot of time by printing the tutorials
and then just reading them.
Deluxe isn't copy-protected. It's warranted
58 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
FOR THE IBM PC* COMPAQ* ETC.
K
10 Mbyte
Introducing
Megaflight 100.
A cost breakthrough in hard disk
storage for the IBM PC and many compatibles.
At last! A real cost revolution in hard
disk storage. The Megaflight 100 is a
high-performance, half-height hard
disk system which includes a state-
of-the-art drive unit, disk controller
card and software. You get 10 Mega¬
bytes (formatted) of high-speed data
storage for less than half the cost of
comparable PC hard disk systems!
Full hardware and software
compatibility.
Megaflight 100 features full plug
compatibility with the IBM XT, re¬
quires no extra power and uses
IBM’s DOS 2.0 or 2.1 software driv-
‘IBM. es 4 registered trademark of International Business
Machines, COMPAQ is a trademark of COMPAQ
Computer Corporation.
ers. You’re assured of complete
compatibility with all future XT re¬
leases, and network systems such
as PC Net,** Etherseries'* and
Omninet.**
Installation in less than 20
minutes.
Megaflight 100 includes everything
you'll need for internal installation in
the PC, Compaq, and others. This
includes cables, easy installation
instructions and a comprehensive
manual. Installation typically takes
less than 20 minutes and requires
no special technical knowledge.
"PC Net is a trademark cl Orchid Technologies. Ommnet
is a trademark of Cor v us Systems. Etherseries is a
trademark of 3Com.
One year warranty.
Megaflight 100 is covered by a one
year warranty on parts and labor.
To order, send check or money order
for $895 (includes shipping and
handling) to the address listed be¬
low. Or use Visa or MasterCard and
call our toll free number to order
today (add 3% service charge for
Visa and MasterCard).
Call toll free 800-522-2237.
In Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii
call 503-626-6877.
Dealer, OEM inquiries invited.
For more information call
503-626-6877.
|#J
t%\
Kcimermciri
7787 S.W. Cirrus Dr., Bldg. 26, Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone 503-626-6877
THERE'S ONLY ONE PC/XT
MODEM DESIGNED 10
LETBOTHYOU
AND YOUR
COMPUTER
TALK.
“Thafs it- just one?”
Only the PC:lntelliModem™
lets you switch repeatedly
between voice and data
communications.
Any old modem will let
computers talk. But to move from
talking or listening to sending
and receiving data-at the touch
of a single button— there’s only
one modem that’s smart enough.
The1200-baud PCdntelliModem
from Bizcomp.
Let’s say you want to trans¬
fer some files, and you want to
talk to the person receiving them,
both before and after the trans¬
fer, With other modems, you’d
have to hang up, re-dial, or plug
and unplug a bunch of cables.
Not very convenient, especially
if you use your phone a lot, and
you have only one line.
With the PC:lntelliModem,
you just plug your regular hand¬
set into the back of your I B M
PC/XT. That's it. You're now ready
to make connections with com-
puters-and people-much
faster and more conveniently.
It’s like getting a modem and
a telephone for the price of a
modem alone.
The ultimate status seeker.
The PC:!ntelliModem also
monitors your telephone line’s
status more closely than other
modems. It listens to the line
much like you do, and detects
signals for dial tone, ringing,
busy and voice-some of which
other modems completely ignore.
It then automatically takes the
PCtlnteNiModem and PC-intelhCom are trademarks of
Business Computer Corporation. IBM rs a trademark oi
international Business Machines Corporation, Cross¬
talk is a registered trademark of Microstul Inc. PC -Talk
fll is a registered Uademark of The Headlands Press Inc.
Make sure your modem has all
these PC:lntelliModem features
Integrated Voice/Data
* Switch between voice and data
communications
* Programmable telephone handset
jack
Status Reporting
* Line status detection {dial tone, busy,
ringing, voice answer, modem
answer, incoming call)
* Audio monitor
* Programmable LED
PCdntetliCom Software Included
* 99- name on- tine telephone directory
* Auto-dial, auto-repeat dial,
auto-answer
* Link to another number if busy
* File transfer
* Data capture to diskette
■ Programmable auto log-on
sequences
Compatible with Crosstalkru/PC-Talk lll1M
Receive Sensitivity -50 dBm
Speeds: 110, 300, 1200 baud
appropriate action, so there’s
less chance of error in making
a connection. And since the PC
IntelliModem gives you a con¬
stant indication of what’s going
on, you always know how your
call is progressing.
A soft touch to operate.
Included with our single
plug-in modem board is PC:
IntelliCom™ our exceptionally
easy-to-use software package.
It guides you step by step dur¬
ing use, through on-screen
menus, entry instructions, an
audible buzzer and a handy
HELP key, There’s even a dem¬
onstration program that runs
through the main features.
All software tasks are acti¬
vated by pressing function keys,
which are clearly labeled on the
screen. That means you can go
from talking to someone, to
transferring data, and back to
talking again-all with single
keystrokes.
The one that’s out of sight.
Even though the PC:
IntelliModem is hidden inside
_ your PC or XT, you should see
how it works. So go to your
dealer and ask for a demo. Also
ask about our 2-year warranty,
free NewsNet™ connect time
and our modest $499 price.
Or contact:
Bizcomp,
532 Weddell Drive,
Sunnyvale, CA 94089;
408/745-1616.
You'll find there’s only
one modem that does it
all, including voice com¬
munications: the PC:lntelliModem.
We’ve got people talking.
for sixty days against defects or government
safety recalls. Life tree doesn't have a toll-free
hot line, hut the company's technical people
are willing to talk as long as you're paying.
Ease of Learning and Use. Even though De¬
luxe has a lot more horsepower than the vener¬
able Volk&writer, it's not much harder to learn.
The main difference between the two programs
is that Volkswriter uses only the alt key with
the function keys while Deluxe brings shift and
control into the act. Until you work out a sys¬
tem for remembering which command belongs
with control and which one with alt, you'll
find the optional help menu indispensable.
Deluxe’s installation routine is surprisingly
simple to follow considering the record num¬
ber of options it offers. It's here that you indi¬
cate whether you want spill files created and
automatic backups made. Dy the lime you've
finished answering Deluxe' s questions, you
will have selected your printer and display
type, indicated which disk drive will hold your
documents, changed display colors if you
wish, and even modified your printer table or
built a new one from scratch. If ah this seems
overwhelming, you can always come back
later when you have a better idea of what op¬
tions you want.
If you're a Volkswrtter user who'd like to
move up a notch, you're in for smooth cruis¬
ing. To get you off to a quick start, Llfetxee
provides a separate tutorial that tells you most
of the differences between the two programs.
Fortunately, Defuse has inherited Volkswriter's
friendly disposition; it still rebounds from er¬
rors like a champ and provides you with an
opportunity to call off commands that could
end in disaster. It draws the line, however, at
retrieving deleted text or files, something that
many new word processors can handle.
Deluxe's added baggage hasn't slowed it
down a bit. Aside from the inconvenient key
combinations that put your left hand s nimble-
ness to the test, it s a model of efficiency. For
the most part, it stays out of your way and
keeps keystrokes to a minimum.
Summary, Deluxe is a sure bet for people
who do word processing in more than one lan¬
guage, Also to its credit, it makes quick work
of form letters, does true proportional spacing,
and makes switching between formats a
breeze. What's more, it's so friendly and
efficient that it's hard not to like it. At the same
time, however, Deluxe has a few inadequacies:
Its search and replace features are primitive,
and it's absolutely no help with hyphens and
decimal tabs— to say nothing of the lack of au¬
tomatic paragraph reform, keyboard macros,
and windows.
System Requirements, Deluxe requires
128K and two disk drives (or one floppy drive
plus a hard disk). It comes with printer tables
for nineteen printers.
Volkswriter Deluxe (version 2.0)
List Price; 5295
Lifetree Software
411 Pacific Street, Suite 315
Monterey, CA 93940
(408) 373-4718
Palantir Update
Palantir Software is now shipping a new re¬
lease of Palantir Because they added so many
features to version 1*15 (reviewed here last
January), the folks at Palantir have numbered
the release 2.0 instead of 1.2, as they had
planned. The new version requires more mem¬
ory (128K versus 56K) but costs you less ($395
versus $450).
The most obvious improvement is Lhe man¬
ual, Palantir is now packaged slip-case style;
the newly designed manual has tabs for quick
access to the reference section, and the ex¬
panded tutorial is keyed to disk files.
New cursor controls include Find Line and
Find Page , as well as backward tabbing by
word. Also new is hyphen help with an adjust¬
able hot zone; just set the size of the hot zone
from 1 to 9 (the lower the number, the more
words hyphenated) and Palantir will prompt
you when it encounters a word that needs di¬
viding.
Another new feature allows you to run
other programs from Palantir' s main menu
and, when you're finished, return to editing
with the cursor where you left it. Also,
Mailout, Palantir s, mail merge, is now capable
of decimal math.
Hard-disk users will be happy to know that
the new version supports DOS 2.0 subdirecto¬
ries, Several new printer drivers are available,
including one for the Diablo 630 ECS, and the
terminal drivers are memory-mapped to make
for speedy screen updates. Palantir 2,0 runs on
the PCjr,
If you're a registered PalrntfiV user, you can
get the update for $47,50 by returning your
original program disk to Palantir Software,
3400 Montrose Boulevard, Suite 718, Hous¬
ton, TX 77006. Call (800) 368-3797, A
File size related to disk spate, not RAM
Improved on-screen formatting
Mail merge
Enhanced cursor controls
Column mode
Move and copy partial lines of text
Horizontal scrolling to 250 columns
Delete entire line from any column
Change format without leaving editor
Proof mode to remove control characters
Direct support of more printing features
Notepad files
Support of DOS 2.0 paths and subdirectories
Multilingual character sets
Table 1 , How Deluxe outperforms Volkswriter
score 9,674 tiMe 00:04:52.26
reserves 10
"Forget the Alamo- Your battle cry in space is Remember The
Phi n et H o us to n
ibxus Monthly, April 19H4
Tb Order:
Call [713) 988-0887 or Send $25.25 in check or mo nev order1 to:
BAINUM DUNBAR
8427 Hillcrott. Suite 133, Houston, Texas 77081
Masturoaiil We Accept Visa
62 June 1Q&4 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
I challenge kite
3SSSJ- «» ^safesa «*
“What you see w „ sheets and charts e Male of sen-
screen t0.P"",enuality.' Much better UveCak^Lut windows, 1 .
v
prepay “v i pmbeaaeu - - - -
“Wnat yw“ ~ j n€kao'7 sheets and char middle of sen-
screen to printed p 8 ■ better Uve calculations m ake5 jack2
“Super output quality- Mu ^^’tcd software,
than others. u.. in text. U the ultimate 1 “ er commented,
tn - - « number in ..0r,- as one observe es aU on
“words, "na'ae is what true integration
the same page 13 w
is all about. reason observers
However, the maj unique abil-
thought . Jack2 woo ^wasus ug ^
ity to adapt to chan onUstants were
the competition might in a T >rmal
stopped, just as t y d a n umber of
situation, * in-
• -ssiai? *•“•
rxss:.‘.d
seen!’ _ Challenge Observers
KINGS PAM, d^um„Paras they '
I’anked as the challenge observer business situation, roblem in-
tl05^“w^WnF,ffl chatiges were made 'nthe^iob^ n
tnNewYoilt, „ etmg with in fovmation. ^ , ith ease,' an-
and Los ^nfgttare packages sue ha f e changes around with
M testants h
Super bale ^SunerWnter. t0 start all over agar _
able to complete thetm y
Ask your dealer
fora demonstration today!
Or, call us at
800-645-4513
*
■ I want to join The Jack 2 Challenge!
□ Pfease send me more information on CHALLENGE
| events in my area
j □ Please send me information on the Harvard study
» □ Please add me to your mail list so I can get all the
! CHALLENGE results
NAME; _ _ _ _ _
TITLE; _ _ _ _ _ _
COMPANY; _ _ _ _ _
STREET: _ _ _
CITY: _ _ _ _ STATE: _ _ ZIP:
TELEPHONE NO,: _ _ _ _ _ _
I MAIL TO:
1 Business Solutions Inc t r 60 East Main Street t Kings York 11754 \
“ VEDIT is the front-runner
for the definitive quality
screen editor.”
TODD KATZ - PC MAGAZINE
- — r^^^ble p10^101116
‘VEDIT’s by all odds, th
editor I’ve ever seen. buffers, that is, you
■One of i/varfousg®®4!*1"
^^otn*ceofteP^isn,,,hin8S''0rt0fOUt
standingV The amount of memory
JZS- - — ; FREDERlCKZWMfel^
- SEXTANT^§°y^ - f
__ — - - ~ luitt soend most of
SEXTANT^lEii^- -
, _ _ _ ~~ .viu Snend most ot
mT’s ‘Visual’ mode, v/here y°’ ^le one-or-
„ modify tea. . 71
>VT- . |
,u've eve, though »*
.r think no more. > vfdIT ’
■ fcn'1 m“Ureil*h,tho«ands»f«^ra'
lis review ilv^-r°;l well worth considering.
W. then VEDIT «« coMCltheitifto
C, '
iDITs
nost operations seem
* n nlra= THE IBM - - '
- - - - - TT„ OP ADER RESPONSE
- iTTi l
thingthatcan , d M rton * K<lPlftn — i
editor category for the w- ^ 1
the definitive <P» <» ^ ^ powerful *«h
h^fifl d^tie filled manual designed
H-,- Vits many features.
VEDIT is available for virtually every 8080, Z80 or 8086
microcomputer made. To order please specify your
microcomputer, operating system and disk format.
VEDIT - Disk and Manual
8080,280 or IBM PC ...$150
CP/M-86or MS-DOS. . . . $195
Manual Only . $ 18
VE Off
CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Inc MS1XJS is a trademark of Microsoft IBM is a trademark of International Busines
Machines. Quota from InfoWorld review Coyp right 1983 by Popular Computing. Inc a subsidiary of CW Communications. Inc ,
I Framingham, MA - Reprinted from InfoWorld Quote from Byte review Copyright 1983 by Byte Publications. Inc Quote from Sextain
review Copyright 1985 by Sonant Publishing Co.
CompuView
PRODUCTS^ INC.
1955 Pauline Blvd. Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103
(313) 996-1299 Telex - 701821
Tradetalk
A Lotus Development Corporation (Cam¬
bridge, MA) has announced a licensing agree¬
ment with Prelude Development Corporation
(Cambridge, MA): the latter firm will provide
artificial intelligence software technology to
Lotus,
A In response to the training needs of its deal¬
ers, AST Research (Irvine, CA) has appointed
John Purner manager of training, reporting di¬
rectly to Tom Stickel, vice president of sales,
Purner will implement and administer a com¬
plete training curriculum /seminar package to
provide dealers with sales training, Purner
comes to AST from CalComp in Anaheim,
California, where he was manager of sales and
sales support.
A BetaTool Systems (Denver, CO) is the new
name of SofTool Systems, the Colorado devel¬
oper of the BASIC Development System, a set
of software tools for programming in Basic,
According to Ken Snapp, president of Beta-
Tool Systems, the change was necessary to
avoid conflict with a California firm that had
nade prior use of the name SofTool,
A Jerry Ruttenbur has joined Microsoft (Belle¬
vue, WA) as vice president of the retail sales
division. He comes to Microsoft from Koala
Technologies, where he was vice president of
the sales division.
A 5KU (Berkeley, CA) has been chosen by
Waldenbooks (Stamford, CT) to provide be¬
tween one hundred and one hundred twenty-
five titles to more than sixty Waldenbooks
stores in Washington, D.C, Cincinnati, and
Chicago, Titles will include a selection of en¬
tertainment, educational, business, and home
management software. Steve Cunningham,
SKU vice president of sales, noted that 'book
stores have been trying to determine whether
or not they should be in the software business.
Now it appears that the industry is committed
to software. The book industry is emerging as
the largest single source of retail software sales
because of the huge volume of foot traffic it
generates,"
A Innovative Software (Overland Park, KS) is
bundling its 77A4 /V database manager soft¬
ware program with all personal computers
sold by Columbia Data Corporation (Colum¬
bia, MDh Michael J. Brown, president of In¬
novative, expects TIM IV* s installed user base
of over twenty thousand to double in size as a
result of the agreement.
A BKW Systems (Nashua, NH), which de¬
signs, develops, markets, installs, and services
integrated, on-line hardware/soitware solu¬
tions for banks and financial institutions, re¬
ported a loss of $345,014 on revenues of
$2,938,172 during its second fiscal quarter end¬
ing March 31, 1904, For the corresponding pe¬
riod in 1983, the company reported net income
of $227,639 on revenues of $729,886, AI Fich-
era, Jr., chairman of the board and chief ex¬
ecutive officer of BKW, characterized the
results as consistent with management's ex¬
pectations."
A Microcomputer software producers are rap¬
idly moving toward the standard marketing
tools of the publishing industry according to
Emery Koltay, director of the (J.S. ISBN
Agency (New York, NY}. "More than 39 per¬
cent of our monthly requests for new ISBNs
have been coming from the microcomputer
software industry, and it seems to be escalat¬
ing," said Koltay
A Compaq Computer Corporation (Houston,
TX) has expanded its corporate operations.
Compaq president Rod Canion has announced
the introduction of Compaq products in Eu¬
rope, the creation of a telecommunications
subsidiary, and the creation of three new cor¬
porate divisions— the Portable Computer divi¬
sion, the Office Computer division, and the
Advanced Computer division. The company's
overseas operations, headquartered in
Munich, are directed by Eckhard Pfeiffer, vice
president, European operations, Pfeiffer previ¬
ously spent twenty-eight years with Texas In¬
struments. Compaq Telecommunications is
based in Dallas and will develop advanced tel¬
ecommunications technologies that will be
reflected in future products.
A William G Alim has been named vice presi¬
dent, marketing, for Softmart (Philadelphia,
PA), a franchisor of retail software stores fea¬
turing software and accessories exclusively for
the IBM PC and PC compatibles. Allin, who
will be primarily responsible for marketing the
Softmart franchises, is a former franchise de¬
velopment officer for Entre Computer Centers,
A Sysgen (Fremont, CA), a manufacturer of
multifunction controllers and disk-tape
backup systems for personal computers, has
received an order valued at approximately $5
million from Hospital Corporation of America
(Nashville, TN} for the Sysgen II-G-20, which
incorporates a twenty-megabyte Winchester
disk and quarter-inch streaming tape cartridge
backup. The PCs will be used to analyze Medi-
continued on page 68
TOSHIBA
Quickly
use the full
capabilities
of your printer
without
programming
or looking up
control codes.
With PrintMan's
full-screen display
and pop-up action’
menus, you can
effortlessly:
* Suvt *
Save time and
effort with
PrintMan's
extensive tutorials for the novice,
sophisticated techniques for the
professional. Priced $49 for one
printer model of your choice —
S 1 5 for each additional model
ri'TFSL
1 1 VffV
BaEteMfeBi
nH
NM 88003
90 (INFORMATION ONLY I
+,
'
V. awpiry mpiw* * •
HU«m n jJO '""'ll
»wi'-«CbG& f )D JDf
WII tl AN.i » ■ MV ,'M i*
‘-“■'•“■fc au 1 Miip H"iti i}*'1
y • J" • 1 j *
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 65
Softalk Classified Advertising
Adventure
ADVENTURE TIPS & SOLUTIONS
Quality books complete with FULL MAPS,
CLUES, and SOLUTIONS. Original Adventure ;
Colossal Cave, Zork I, Zoric II, Zork III, Deadline,
Starcross, Enchanter, Ulysses & Golden Fleece,
Wizard & Princess. Price $3.95 each, or any 3 for
$10, or 4 for $12. NM residents add 5% tax. Send
check/MO to: TIPS, Box 312-P, Hobbs, NM
88240.
ZORK MAPS & HINT BOOKS
Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Witness, Infidel, En¬
chanter, Starcross, Suspended, Planet fall, Dead¬
line, Adventure and Sorcerer maps and hint books.
$7.50 each, or all 3 Zorks plus Adventure for $21!
(Visa/MC, Check or M/O.) Broken Timber Press,
Dept. P, 1625 W. 39th Ave., Kansas City, KS 66103;
(913) 722-2464.
NEW IDEAS
LAW OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE
A new concept based on logic and the laws of phys¬
ics which provides irrefutable solutions to the
problems of unemployment, the welfare mess and
foreign trade. All color graphics. $100. 30 day full
refund if G1GO, or $25 + your evaluation of pro¬
gram, but no refund. NSE SOFTWARE, 2229
Woodside Lane §2, Sacramento, CA 95825;
Phone: (916) 927-6476.
ACCOUNTANTS SOFTWARE
We have the most complete line of software for ac¬
countants found anywhere. Before purchasing
your next program, take a look at our aggressively
priced software designed for the professional ac¬
countant. Call or write for our current catalog with
over 30 accountant oriented programs.
Omni Software Systems, Inc. 146 N. Broad St.
Griffith, IN 46319; (219) 924-3522
LEARN IBM JCL
Introduction to IBM OS/ JCL is an interactive tuto¬
rial in IBM Job Control Language for OS. Don't be
intimidated by the wizards... learn their secrets! 10
lessons cover OS concepts, JCL syntax & IBM utili¬
ties. Specify IBM PC, PCjr or Apple. $50. (404)
475-0832.
Applied MicroSystems, Inc.
P O Box 832
Roswell, GA 30077
PROJECT TRACKING
PROTRACS offers project and action-item track¬
ing to PC & PCjr users. Tasks are tracked by prior¬
ity or responsibility. Real time sorting on any field
for custom reporting. 6 reports can be directed to
screen, disk or printer. 4 Gantt charts can be
scrolled in 2 dimensions. Full-screen perpetual cal¬
endar, up to 100 projects with up to 100 tasks each.
$59.95. Applied MicroSystems, Box 832, Roswell,
GA 30077.
TexSolver-10
Turn your PC into a supercalculator! One-key¬
stroke execution of over 50 functions, incld. trig,
statistics, powers, etc. Uses a number "stack", the
same as hi-qual. HP calculators. Best features of a
calculator and PC combined. For ease of use, ac¬
curacy, & convenience, TexSolver-10 is an unbeat¬
able value! $39.95. Free broch. Microtex, Box
1054, Carrollton, TX, 75011, (214) 980-983 7.
FANTASY/ADVENTURE ADDICTS
Can't find articles about your favorite game? You
need the WIZINEWS quarterly— The source for
news, tips, articles, interviews, reviews, gossip,
commentary for ALL fantasy /adventure games 1
We do it right! Subscribe: $10/ four issues, sample
$2.50 (VISA/MC). WIZINEWS, 6901 Buckeye
Way, Columbus, GA 31904; (404) 323-9227
MY - T - MAILER
This menu-driven mailing program prints labels,
Hardware' ^
3x5 cards, envelopes, etc. all sizes, all arrange¬
ments! Sort on all fields. Powerful commands se¬
lect labels in any order. Prints up to 5000 copies of
one label. Supports RAM disks and hard disks. Re¬
quires 128K, DOS, parallel printer, 80 col. display.
$30.
JOHNSON SOFTWARE CO., Suite 195
3M DISKETTES... $19.95
Box of 10 5.25" SS/DD/RH diskettes. DS/DD/RH
$24.95. Ship in 24 hr. Check/MC/Visa. $2 ship¬
ping. Cactus Computer, 3090 E. Palouse River Dr.
Sw305, Moscow, ID 83843; (208) 882-8603.
420 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
* *IBM PC WORKCENTER* *
THE PRICEBOOK
A multi-purpose system that outputs (to disk and/or
printer) quantities, product descriptions, price exten¬
sions and totals. Ideal for sales & insurance agents,
estimators, subcontractors, buyers, billing personnel
et al. $99.95. Manual alone: $15. RJL Systems, 106
New Haven Ave., Milford, CT 06460; (203) 878-0376.
4 hour const. project-Store your excess cables un¬
der the comp, in the rear and the keyboard under
the front. All one unit 46 in. long W/a 24 x 10 inch
high shelf for manuals or disk storage. $1 for photo
and descrip. $8 for dwg's and inst. KAJ Enterprise,
16415 Myrtlewood, Dept. ST, Fountain Valley, CA
92708.
INVENTORY MGMT PROGRAM
IMP is a full featured inventory program. Featur¬
ing auto /manual PO generation, order tracking,
low level reordering, on-line help and more. Spec¬
ify color/mono, req's 64K, 2 DS. $89.95 + $3.50
S/H. Visa/MC. DATACONsulting, 2311 W. 5700
S„ Roy, UT, 84067; (801) 773-8080.
SUPPLIES
PRICES REDUCED!!
RIBBONS-Apple DMP/C.Itoh/Nec 8023 $4.29;
Epson MX70/80 $3.85. STORAGE UNIT-75 ca¬
pacity $15.75/10 capacity $1.49. For price list call
(415) 778-2595 or write Argonaut Dist., 1104 Bu¬
chanan Rd. STI, Antioch, CA 94509.
Tl m FMCI/TT 1 TC
Communications
3M SCOTCH DISKETTES
$18.50
Authorized 3M distributor. Buy wholesale 5.25" SS/
DD $18.50. DS/DD $23.50. Prompt delivery! For
price list call (415) 778-2595 or write Argonaut Dist.,
1104 Buchanan Rd. STI, Antioch, CA 94509.
FREE CATALOG - 1984
ERGONOMIC COMPUTER FURNITURE
Home designs from over 20 natl. manufacturers;
discounts* never a shipping charge* Visa/MC. In¬
terior Design Systems, 3641-S St. Mary's Place,
NW, Washington, DC 20007; (202) 333-7502.
COMMUNITREE ON THE PC
Let your PC work after hours or 24 hours, create a
network for your company or customers. Put your
info on line and watch profits grow. "...Communi-
Tree is the best." — Creative Computing. Also Ap¬
ple, TRS-80. $250 (+S&H. Visa/MC OK). Soft-
net, Box 522, Berkeley, CA 94701; (415) 548-8170.
' f- : 1 ‘ ' ‘ 'V ‘ '
Fantasy
WIZARDRY FRUSTRATION?
The WIZISYSTEM has helped thousands of world¬
wide Wizfans be successful AND enjoy the game
even more! Enhanced manual (NEW IBM version)
has step-by-step help, powerful tips, complete
item, monster, etc. charts ($10). Superior maps
($5). All only $13.50! FREE support /updates.
VISA/MC, Don't toss $$ to inferior imitators:
We're the originals! Nichols Services, 6901 Buck¬
eye Way, Columbus, GA 31904; (404) 323-9227.
HORSE RACE HANDICAPPING!
Get ready for the races at your favorite Thorough¬
bred Track with "CAPEM-T", the program that
has successfully picked many winners. Runs on
64K 1 disk IBM PC or PCjr. $49.95 plus $3 han¬
dling (CA res add 6%).
Tri Soft, Inc., 10689 Santa Monica Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90025; (213) 470-3489.
HO$$
Thoroughbred Handicapping Tutorial
Five menu-drive, multi-factor systems. Modeling
Coefficients for YOUR needs. IBM w/Game $89.
TOUT Co., Box 3145, Pomona, CA 91769.
66 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
HOME FINANCING ANALYST
Buy? Rent? Refinance? The Home Financing Ana¬
lyst computes your housing costs, incorporating
effects of income & property taxes; calculates
monthly annual, cumulative interest & principal
paid; derives effective mortgage rates; evaluates
impact of property appreciation & opportunity
cost of funds invested; compares alternatives &
more. 128Kb req. $15 (demo $5). NAKAD, 697
Cove Rd., Stamford, CT 06902.
I CHING ON COMPUTER!
THE ORACLE™
Software for IBM PC/XT /jr, Apple, 11 + /lie,
TRS80. Computerized consultation of the 1 Ching,
the ancient Chinese oracle. Use it as a tool for medi¬
tation, self-discovery and personal or business
problem solving. Tutorial and radically new trans¬
lation on disk. $69.95 Visa/MC accepted.
Kerson Huang, Box 1083
Marblehead, MA 01945; (617) 631-5985
TOTAL FITNESS SOFTWARE
★ Free* catalog of 130+ health progs, for all ages
including diet, exerrise/aerobics, psychology, anat¬
omy, health games. Programs for the heart, smok¬
ing, alcohol, stress mgmt, memory retention, and
more. CTRL Health Software, 18653 Ventura Bl.
#348A, Tarzana, CA 91356; (81 8) 788-0888.
Home Arcade
FLY YOUR MICROSOFT FLIGHT
SIMULATOR WITH JOYSTICKS
Patch adds joystick control of elevators and
ailerons. Send $12 for patch diskette to FS PATCH,
2311 10th Ave. NW, Rochester, MN 55901 .
Home Education
HELP FOR PC USERS!
The only HELP facility for the IBM /PC . . . thou¬
sands in use by gov't, schools, Fortune 1000.
Makes learning/ using DOS much easier. Provides
on-screen reference, no need to dig thru the book.
Any PC, XT, jr, or compatible with one DSDD
drive. Any DOS release. FREE color setting pro-
gram l $29.95 (check/MO). RSI, 8723 Woodleigh
Drive, Houston, TX 77083.
BUILD VOCABULARY! Wordian Knot
game. 75K word diet. Plays, solves ALL Boggle
grids. $30 ppd. Free brochure. Req : PC-DOS, 80-
column monitor. $5 Demo. MeGa Corp, 9020C
Mahogany, Huntsville, AL 35802.
PUBLICATIONS :m
MORE THAN 3000
COMPUTER BOOK TITLES AVAILABLE
Comprehensive selection of computer books from
every major publisher at low discount prices! Call
(800) 847-4272 or (818) 841-8411 to place book or¬
der & receive free price list, or mail $2 P&H for
price list only.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
3308 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505.
D-FA STER . D-BETTER™
Make dBASE II fly. Benchmarks, insights & soft¬
ware. For existing & new programs. Request infor¬
mation & introductory special. Micro db Systems,
3713 Lawndale, Midland, MI 48640.
FREEWARE DISK MAGAZINE!
Come, join the fun with the new bi-monthly
FREEWARE (tm) disk magazine -PC FIRING
LINE/PC UNDERGROUND. Requires: IBM-PC
with 128K RAM and a double-sided disk drive.
Plenty of source code, fascinating demo programs,
unique language columns, hardware column, and
fun for all is included. Send a self-addressed, post¬
age-paid (54 cents) disk mailer, and two formatted
DS/DD disks for the current issue. ABComputing,
Box 5503, North Hollywood, CA 91616-5503;
(818) 509-9002.
SAVE AT GOLEM COMPUTERS
Our * * SOFTWARE and HARDWARE * *
prices are lowest. All major brands are available.
We carry business, education and entertainment
software. Call for **FREE** catalog.
(800) 345-8112, in Pennsylvania (800) 662-2444.
TAPE/DISKETTE COPY SVC.
Well copy your IBM formatted 9 track, 1600/800
bpi tapes to a single/double sided, 5 1/4" PC DOS
formatted diskette. We can also copy IBM PC disk¬
ettes to CP/M 8" diskettes. Call Tracy Coker at
(619) 474-2010 , COMPUTER COGNITION, 225
W. 30th St., National City, CA 92050.
TAPE-DISK CONVERSION
9 Track 800/1600 BPI Mag Tape converted to disk¬
ette or hard disk. Disk to tape, programming, and
processing available. Total D.P services. Main¬
frame capability.
D.P. MODERN SYSTEMS; (818) 966-2628.
*$1.00— FREE!
WHEN YOU CALL
(219) 534-1012
HOOSIER SOFTWARE
Box 275, Goshen, IN 46526
SOFTWARE JUNKIE
RENT today's most popular recreational and edu¬
cational computer software for your IBM personal
computer. LOW prices. FREE brochure. The Soft
Source-R Inc., Dept. K, Box 2931, Joliet, IL 60434.
9 TRACK TAPE TO DISKS
Conversion from ASCII or EBCDIC 1600 BPI mag¬
netic tape (up to 16K blocks) to most 5 1/4 single,
dual or quad diskettes. High speed automated
process verifies transfer. Quality guaranteed. Only
FIVE CENTS per thousand characters plus $3 per
diskette. $50 minimum.
Austin Scientific Inc., 1259 El Camino #260
Menlo Park, CA 94025; (415) 323-6338
LOTUS 1-2-3 TEMPLATES
Learn to use Lotus thru practical applications.
1984 Federal Tax Calculator
Personal Accounting System
Personal Mailing System
$29.95 ea./2 or more on one disk $25 ea.
VISA/MC - 30 DAY Money Back Guarantee
EASY-AS..., INC.
Suite 402, 36 S. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201; (301) 539-5540
SUPER SOFTWARE SAVINGS
For a complete catalog of personal and small busi¬
ness computer software and hardware at excellent
prices, write: SBCC, Box 1191, Thousand Oaks,
CA 91360; (805) 492-9391.
MAGAZINE ARTICLE INDEX
ASCII file — 1700+ articles from all issues PC
World , PC Age, PC Tech Journal, PC Magazine,
Softalk & selections from Byte & DDJ. Retrieve us¬
ing your program, EDLIN or PC-FILE. $9.95.
AMPWARE, Box 30279, Cincinnati, OH 45230.
FULL CONTROL FROM BASIC
Cut development time, add speed & power to pro¬
grams with NLIB. A library of C & assembly lan¬
guage subroutines callable from BASIC: execute
COM & EXE files, save & restore areas of the
screen, clear and scroll windows, much more! Add
DOS functions to menus. Create fast help screens.
Unlimited uses. All DOS versions. $49.95. Source
avail. National Softworks, 65 E. Elizabeth Ave.,
Bethlehem, PA 18018; (215) 867-4800.
DBASE II ENHANCER
dENHANCER is a series of dBASE II programs
providing easy access & manipulation of dBASE II
data files without programming. Includes a dy¬
namic report generator, global file modifier, statis¬
tical analyzer and much more. Written in dBASE II
& all source code is included. Save yourself hours
of time /effort with dENHANCER, only $39.95.
Informative Software, 33 Andover Ln., HicksviUe,
NY 11801; (516) 822-23 77.
CURSOR — Prompt. Design hardware cur¬
sors to indicate all SHIFT & TOGGLE states! DOS
1. 1/2.0. Color/Mono. PC/XT & WORK-AUKES.
Used successfully with BASIC, Wordstar, dBll,
Multiplan, ProKey, etc. $10. TadAlex Software,
10834 Dixon Dr. S., Seattle, WA 98178.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 67
RUN IBM'S APL W/O 8087
The 8087 ELIMINATOR allows you to run IBM's
APL (Version 1.0) on your IBM PC (DOS 2.0)
without an expensive 8087 chip. Software package
emulates functions of the 8087 required by APL. If
you want the function of APL, but you don't need
the speed of an 8087, give the 8087 ELIMINATOR
a try. 30-day money-back guarantee. Send $49
(Visa/MC/check/MO) to Fort's Software, Box
396-ST, Manhattan, KS 66502.
END PRINTER FRUSTRATION!
SurePrint takes the pain out of using your printer!
Printer options made easy for any IBM PC pack¬
age, from DOS, BASIC, and on-line. SurePrint
available for IBM (NEW COLOR, TOO), all Ep-
sons, all Okidata, IDS, C.Itoh, NEC, Anadex, TI,
Juki, TEC, Diablo, others. Only $35 for one
printer, add'l printers $15. Specify make and
model. NYS add 71/4% tax.
Dickinson Associates Inc.
Box 1358, Melville, NY 11747
FULL SNOBOL4 LANGUAGE
Interpreter for £ 128K IBM PC. Includes manuals,
ELIZA & other sample programs. $54.95 ppd.
Check VISA MC (914) 485-6771 SNOBOL4; Box
441, Millwood, NY 10546.
GENERAL CHAINING
EXEC — program chainer uses DOS loader. Com¬
mon data area. Low overhead (9K) permits large
systems written in different languages in limited
memory space (PC/V7). Price of $95 includes exam¬
ples and source for our C Tools users. Requires
DOS 2.0. Another quality productivity tool from
Blaise Computing Inc., Dept A, 2034 Blake St.,
Berkeley, CA 94704; (415) 540-5441.
BOOT PC FROM HARD DISK
FiXT boots from Datamac, Davong, Pegasus, Per-
com. Great Lakes, others. Adds XT-like BIOS in¬
terface for your disk to IBM PC2. Ends need for
installable device drivers. DOS 2. 0/2.1 req. Plug¬
in installation. Specify disk/controller model with
order. $70 + $3 shipping. (CA orders add 6%.)
GOLDEN BOW SYSTEMS, Box 3039, San Diego,
CA 92103; (619) 298-9349.
ASYNC ADAPTER SUBSYSTEM
ASAP and ASAP_C (Asynchronous Adapter
Package) are interrupt-driven device drivers for the
IBM Async Adapter which interface to your as¬
sembly or Lattice C programs so async comm can
be embedded in your application software. DK
Softworks, Box 9802 #297, Austin, TX 78766.
FORMS DESIGN SYSTEM
IBM PC & PC-XT Software to Develop Forms on
the HP 7470A, 7475A or HI DMP-29 Plotters. The
System prompts in English for columns, rows, ti¬
tles, column labels, form size. User entries are com¬
puted, and camera ready copy for printing or
copying is produced. Saves hours of drafting and
days of waiting! System, backup, documentation,
and 1 year warranty for $200. Quantity Discounts.
Dealer Program. Write to; Ira Bitz & Associates,
Ltd., 9007 LeVelle Dr., Chevy Chase, MO 20815.
PC-TITLE/PC-PROJECTOR
See PC mag's (Dec., Pg. 619) review of this useful
tool for creating full color professional text for
slides, screen displays & flyers. Let the PC, PCjr,
XT or Compaq computer become your electronic
slide projector for manual or time-controlled " slide
shows". Add complete graphic capabilities with
the much acclaimed PCcrayon . PC-Title /Projector
$49.95. PCcrayon $44.95. Mention this ad and get
all 3 programs for $79.95. VISA/MC. PC Re¬
sources, Inc., 620 Hobart Terrace, Santa Clara, CA
95051; (408) 243-4169
THE PROWRITER UTILITIES
Complete control of your C.Itoh 8510/1550 and
NEC 8023. DOS 1.1 & 2.0 compatible for $44.95.
Visa/MC accepted (CA + tax).
PROCNTRL-On-line keyboard control of printer
PROEPSIM-Epson Graphtrax Simulator (eg 1-2-3)
PROSCR-Text/ Graphics Screen Dump, 3 sizes.
PROSTALL- WordStar 3.2 & 3.3 Installation
PROSET-Menu Driven Printer Setup and more.
COURTRIN ENTERPRISES, Box 231190
San Diego, CA 92123; (619) 569-8308
FREE!! FREE?? FREE!!
BASIC AIDS 2.0 FACT SHEETS and our guide
"MAKE YOUR PC PROFITABLE" are sent FREE
to all that request them. This new release of BASIC
AIDS is a professional Basic program.
DEVELOPMENT/DOCUMENTATION TOOL!
Tulsa Computer Consortium
Box 707, Owasso, OK 74055; (918) 747-0151
Word PikociissiNG
$23.95 WORD PROCESSOR
Easy to use word processor for home & office. Cre¬
ate, Edit, Save & Print any text. Req. IBM PC
DOS, 1 disk drive. Includes instructions & exmpls.
CODE, Box 740, Maple Hill, KS 66507.
Softalk/IBM' s classified advertising section
offers a considerably less expensive way than
display advertising to reach tens of thousands of
IBM PC, Compaq, Corona, and PC-compatible
owners.
Classified advertising space is available at the
rate of $10 per line for the first ten lines, with a five-
line minimum. Each line over ten lines is $25 per
line. Ad copy should be received no later than the
10th of the second month prior to the cover date of
the issue in which you want the ad to appear. Pay¬
ment must accompany ad copy.
The publisher reserves the right to reject any
advertising that he feels is not in keeping with the
publication's standards.
Heads will be set in 10-point boldface, all capi¬
tals only. Italics are available for body text only;
please underline the portions you would like itali¬
cized.
The body text of the ad will hold roughly 45
characters per line. Spaces between words are
counted as one character. Heads will hold roughly
24 characters per line, with spaces between words
counted as one character. Please write or call for
additional information.
Softalk/IBM Classified Advertising
Box 7040
North Hollywood, California 91605
Attention: Cathy Stewart
(818) 980-5074
continued from page 65
care and Medicaid reimbursements. HCA
owns and manages 395 hospitals worldwide.
A Virtual Combinatics (Rockport, MA) has
obtained the rights from Dorrison House Pub¬
lishers (Boston, MA) to publish software edi¬
tions of three of Dorrison's specialty
cookbooks: A New Look at Microwave Cook¬
ing, World of Wok Cooking, and Food Proces¬
sor Cookery .
A GMS Systems (New York, NY) has changed
its corporate name to PowerBase Systems,
thereby joining the list of firms that have re¬
named themselves after their most successful
products.
A Orchid Technology (Fremont, CA) has an¬
nounced a 29 percent price reduction of
PCnet— from $695 to $495. The new price was
effective May 1.
A John K. Abely, president of Technical Pub¬
lishing Company (New York, NY), and Fred¬
erick J. Mazanec, president of Ironoak
Company (La Jolla, CA), have announced the
signing of an agreement in principle under
which Technical will acquire the business of
Ironoak. Ironoak publishes buyers' guides for
microcomputer systems integrators, including
the IBM PC Buyers Guide. Mazanec will re¬
main as publisher of the buyers' guides.
Calendar
June 5 — 9: Rochester Forth Applications Con¬
ference; University of Rochester, Rochester,
NY
June 6 — 8: SNA (Systems Network Architec¬
ture) Architecture and Implementation; Shera¬
ton International, Chicago
June 8—10: 1984 Kansas Computer Exhibition
and Robotics Conference; Century II Conven¬
tion Center, Wichita, KS
June 13—15: PC World Exposition; McCor¬
mick Place West, Chicago
June 13 — 15: NECC (National Educational
Computing Conference) '84; Dayton Conven¬
tion Center, Dayton, OH
June 14—17: International Computer Show;
Cologne, West Germany
June 15 — 17: Computerfest '84, Midwest
Affiliation of Computer Clubs; Dayton Con¬
vention Center; Dayton, OH
June 21 — 23: Great Southern Computer
Show /Jacksonville; Veterans Memorial Coli¬
seum, Jacksonville, FL
June 26—28: Government Computer Expo'84;
Sheraton Washington Hotel; Washington, DC
June 26 — 28: PCExpo; New York Coliseum,
New York
July 3—5: 1984 PC User Show; Novotel (for¬
merly Cunard International), London
July 9—12: National Computer Conference;
Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas,
NV A
68 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Cleanup Time:
A REVISED
(MOUSEWORTHY)
KEYBOARD
BUFFER |
By John Socha
It's time for us to look
through the toolbox
and clean out a few
cobwebs. This month
well look back at two
programs presented
earlier in this series that
have minor problems:
Kbd_fix (November
1983) and
Writecom.bas
(February 1984) .
5of talk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 69
You can count on 3M diskettes
Just like the sun, you can rely on 3M diskettes every day. At3M,
reliability is built into every diskette. We've been in the computer
media business for over 30 years. And we've never settled in.
We’re constantly improving and perfecting our product line, from
computer tape and data cartridges to floppy disks.
3M diskettes are made at 3M. That way, we have complete control
over the entire manufacturing process. And you can have complete
confidence in the reliability of every 3M diskette you buy.
Look in the Yellow Pages under Computer Supplies and Parts for
the 3M distributor nearest you. In Canada, write 3M Canada, Inc.,
London, Ontario. If it’s worth remembering, it’s worth 3M diskettes.
Day after day.
3M hears you...
There was a bug in the original version of Kbd_fix.com that kept it
from working with certain application programs, such as 1-2-3. That
bug was exterminated in a followup article (January 1984) — and that
should have been the end of any problems associated with Kbd—fix.
But it wasn't. Along came the Microsoft Mouse; the mouse and Kbd—
fix didn't get along.
This article refixes Kbd—fix to make it compatible with the Micro¬
soft Mouse. In the process of remodeling Kbd — fix, we'll also take care
of a small bug in Writecom.bas.
But before we get to all that, let's quickly review the subject of the
keyboard buffer.
Every time you push a key your IBM PC puts the ASCII code asso¬
ciated with that key into an area of memory known as a buffer. This
buffer has room for as many as fifteen characters; if you try to put more
than fifteen keystrokes into the buffer, your PC will beep at you, indi¬
cating that the buffer is full. Most of the time, your PC has no trouble
reading and processing characters faster than you type them. But there
are times when your computer is too busy to handle your keyboard
input and when a fifteen-character buffer may not be large enough.
Kbd — fix extended the capacity of the PC's internal keyboard buffer
from 15 to 159 characters. Our revised program, Kbd— buf, does the
same and, unlike its predecessor, also works with both 1-2-3 and the
Microsoft Mouse.
Kbd— buf is a machine language program— specifically, a .com file.
But you don't need to know anything about machine language to build
or use it; Basic will do all the work for you.
Figure 1 shows the Basic program that creates Kbd_buf.com and
stores it on your disk. Just type in this program and run it once to build
and store Kbd— buf. The data statements have a number of checks in
them; if you mistype some of the numbers, these checks will tell you on
which lines you've made mistakes.
But the rest of the program can't check itself. So, before you run the
program, proofread lines 100 through 480.
After you've run the program in figure 1, you should have Kbd—
buf.com on your disk. This is the machine language program that ex¬
tends your keyboard buffer. Kbd —buf attaches itself to DOS each time
you run it. You should run it only once— each time you start DOS; if
you attach it to DOS more than once, you'll find that your PC won't
* read characters from the keyboard until you restart DOS.
To attach Kbd— buf to DOS and extend your keyboard buffer, just
type kbd— buf after the DOS prompt.
To run Kbd— buf automatically each time you start DOS, add the
line "kbd— buf" to your Autoexec.bat file. If you're also using
Scrollk.com (see 'The Scroll Lock Mystery Solved," Softalk , May
1983), run Kbd— buf before running Scrollk. And if you're using Pro-
Key, you'll want to run Kbd— buf first, since Kbd— buf won't read Pro-
Key' s macros otherwise. If you're using all three programs— ProKey,
Scrollk, and Kbd— buf — your batch file should look like this:
KBD -BUF
SCROLLK
PROKEY/I (replace this with PKLOAD if you're using ProKey
version 3.0 or later)
If you've been a reader of "Socha's Toolbox" for a while, you'll recall
that the February installment presented and discussed Writecom.bas,
the Basic program that creates all the various machine language pro¬
grams presented in this series. Figure 1 also corrects a minor flaw in the
version of Writecom.bas presented in February.
Makedata, the program that creates the data statements from a
.com file, does a bit of compaction. Some of the programs in the Tool¬
box series have a large number of zeros in them. So rather than write
down a long list of zeros, Makedata writes a — 1 followed by a number
that represents the number of zeros. For example, in line 1020 of this
month's figure 1, 320 zeros (for the keyboard buffer) have been com¬
pressed into two numbers: —1, 320.
Writecom also checks the data for errors; if it finds a number larger
than 255, it assumes you've forgotten to type a comma. The problem is
100 READ LENGTH. %, CHECK. SUM. %, FILE.NAME.$
110 NUM.LINES. % = {LENGTH.% + 7)\8
120 DIM CHECK. % (NUM.UNES.%)
130 FOR I.« - 1 TO NUM.UNES.% : CHECK. %(L%) - 0 : NEXT I.%
140 PRINT "Checking";
150 FOR I. % = 1 TO LENGTH.%
160 READ BYTE.!
170 IF {BYTE.! > 255) AND (LASTBYTE. ! <> -1) THEN 210
180 BYTE.% - BYTE.!
190 CHECK. %{1 + (I.% - 1)V 8) = CHECK. %<1 + (I.% - 1)\ 8) XOR BYTE.% : GOTO 230
200 'else
210 PRINT : PRINT "Une";1010 + 10 * {{!,% — 1) \ 8)0J;"may have a missing comma."
220 PRINT "Writing slopped." : GOTO 480
2J0 IF (L% MOD 8 - 1) THEN PRINT
235 LAST. BYTE.! = BYTE.!
240 NEXT L%
2S0 PRINT
260 ERROR. % -0 Tio error yet
270 FOR L% ~ 1 TO NUM.UNES.%
280 READ CHECK. % : UNE.CHECK.% - L1NE.CHECK.% XOR CHECK. %
290 IF CHECK.%(I,%) <> CHECK.% THEN PRINT "Un«";1000 + 10 * l.%;"May be bad" : ERROR. % - -1
300 NEXT I.%
310 IF UNE.CHECK.% - CHECK.SUM.% THEN 330
320 PRINT "Data may be bad In data starting at line 10000" : ERROR. % « -1
330 IF ERROR. % THEN 480
340 OPEN FILE.NAME.5 AS #1 LEN - 1
350 FIELD #1,1 AS BYTE*. : PRINT "Writing”;
360 RESTORE 1010 'Restore aO except for first Une of data
370 FOR I. % = 1 TO LENGTH.%
380 READ BYTE.%
390 IF BYTE.% <> -1 THEN 430
400 READ COUNT. % : LSET BYTE.S - CHR$(0) : I.% - I.% + 2
410 FOR J.% “ 1 TO COUNT, % : PUT #1 : NEXT J.%
420 READ BYTE.%
430 LSET BYTEJ - CHRS{BYTE.%) : PUT #1
440 IF (l.% MOD 8=1) THEN PRINT "
450 NEXT I.%
460 CLOSE
470 PRINT : PRINT FILENAME. $;" created"
480 END
1000 DATA
390,
418,
"kbd— buf.com"
1010 DATA
233,
113,
2,
-1,
8,
15,
1020 DATA
1,
—1,
320,
80,
83,
81,
1030 DATA
187,
30,
0,
228,
97,
80,
1040 DATA
230,
97,
185,
60,
0,
226,
1050 DATA
2,
230,
97,
185,
60,
0,
1060 DATA
75,
117,
235,
88,
230,
97,
1070 DATA
91,
88,
195,
187,
64,
0,
108C DATA
250,
139,
30,
26,
0,
59,
1090 DATA
0,
117,
29,
187,
30,
0,
1100 DATA
1110 DATA
1120 DATA
1130 DATA
1140 DATA
1150 DATA
1160 DATA
1170 DATA
1180 DATA
1190 DATA
1200 DATA
1210 DATA
1220 DATA
1230 DATA
1240 DATA
1250 DATA
1260 DATA
1270 DATA
1280 DATA
1290 DATA
1300 DATA
1310 DATA
1320 DATA
1330 DATA
1340 DATA
1350 DATA
1360 DATA
1370 DATA
1380 DATA
1390 DATA
1400 DATA
1410 DATA
1420 DATA
1430 DATA
1440 DATA
1450 DATA
1460 DATA
1470 DATA
1480 DATA
1490 DATA
10000'
10010 DATA
10020 DATA
10030 DATA
10040 DATA
10050 DATA
10060 DATA
219 10070 DATA
28
13 % . 30
26,
0,
131,
195,
2,
137,
30,
28
0,
140,
203,
142,
219,
187,
IS,
1
137,
30,
11,
1>
137,
30,
13,
1
251,
195,
30,
86,
83,
80,
187,
64
0,
142,
219,
46,
139,
54,
13,
1
139,
30,
26,
0,
131,
195,
2,
131
251,
62,
114,
3,
187,
30,
0,
59
30,
28,
0,
116,
45,
139,
7,
46
137,
4,
131,
198,
2,
129,
254,
79
2,
114,
3,
190,
15,
1,
46,
59
54,
n,
1,
117,
10,
232,
107,
255
46,
139,
54,
13,
1,
235,
s,
46
137,
54,
13,
1,
137,
30,
26,
0
235,
194,
88,
91,
94,
31,
195,
30
83,
60,
232,
118,
255,
156,
46,
255
30,
3,
1,
232,
156,
255,
187,
64
0,
142,
219,
160,
23,
0,
36,
12
60,
12,
117,
8,
46,
161,
13,
1
46,
163,
11,
%
88,
91,
31,
207
251,
30,
83,
232,
77,
253,
232,
121
255,
140,
203,
142,
219,
10,
228,
116
12,
128,
252,
1,
116,
41,
91,
31
46,
255,
46,
7,
1,
251,
144,
250
139,
30,
11,
1,
59,
30,
13,
1
116,
243,
139,
7,
131,
195,
2,
129
251,
79,
2,
117,
3,
187,
15,
1
137,
30,
11,
1,
91,
31,
207,
250
139,
30,
11,
l,
59,
30,
13/
1
139,
7,
251,
91,
31/
202,
2,
0
30,
184,
-1,
2,
142,
216,
250,
161
36,
0,
46,
163,
3,
X,
161,
38
0*
46,
163,
5,
1,
199,
6,
36
0,
251,
2,
140,
14,
38,
0,
251
161,
88,
0,
46,
163,
7,
1,
161
90,
0,
46,
163,
9,
1,
199,
6
88,
0,
36,
3,
140,
14,
90,
0
184,
64,
0,
142,
216,
250,
187,
30
0,
137,
30,
26,
0,
199,
7,
-1
2,
131,
195,
2,
13?,
30,
28,
0
251,
186,
116,
3,
205,
39
-148,
-374,
168,
18,
28,
206,
110,
76
90,
211,
167,
A
136,
202,
78,
42
249,
250,
214,
63,
95,
62,
182,
47
108,
202,
206,
84,
125,
119,
104,
104
182,
200,
117,
236,
182,
251,
-170,
44
108,
166,
211,
30,
167,
241,
-78,
203
220
Figure 1.
1, 15
156, 250
36, 252
254, 12
226, 254
157, 89
142,
30,
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 71
that sometimes we may want to use a number larger than 255; in line
1020, for example, we have 320, which is certainly larger than 255.
The new version of Writecom in figure 1 looks to see whether the
last number it has read is — 1; if it is, the program doesn't check to see
whether the number following is larger than 255. We'll be using this
modified version of Writecom from now on.
We won't go into the details of how Kbd— buf works, since those
details can be found in the original article. But let's take a quick look at
why the original version — Kbd— fix — doesn't work with the Microsoft
Mouse.
Kbd — fix puts itself in front of the ROM BIOS routines that read
characters from the keyboard. Each time you strike a key Kbd — fix
passes control to the ROM BIOS routine, which may or may not put a
character into the fifteen-character buffer (when the ROM BIOS rou¬
tine reads certain keystrokes, such as those produced by the shift keys,
it doesn't put any characters in the buffer).
After the ROM BIOS routine has had a chance to put a character
into the fifteen-character buffer, Kbd — fix comes along and checks to
see if there's a character in the buffer; if it finds one there, it transfers
that character into its own 159-character buffer. Kbd— fix checks for
only one character at a time. If you have a program that stuffs charac¬
ters directly into the keyboard buffer (as does the Microsoft Mouse, for
example), Kbd— fix misses most of these characters.
The new version, Kbd — buf, keeps on checking for characters until
the fifteen-character buffer is empty. That way, Kbd — buf reads all the
characters stuffed directly into the fifteen-character buffer.
Besides continuing to check for characters until the fifteen-character
buffer is empty, Kbd —buf differs from Kbd —fix in one other important
way: It checks for characters not only after a call to the ROM BIOS
keyboard routine (INT 9H) but also after any program has tried to read
characters from the keyboard using INT 16H. So, unlike Kbd— fix,
which failed to catch characters input via the Microsoft Mouse, Kbd —
buf should catch all characters sent directly to the keyboard buffer by
any program. A
VECTORS
SEGMENT
AT OH
ORB
9H*4
KEYBO ARD_I NT. VECTOR
LABEL
ORB
16H*4
KEYBOARD. 10. VECTOR
LABEL
VECTORS
ENDS
ROM.BIOS.DATA
SEGMENT
AT 4 OH
ORB
17H
KBD. FLAB
DB
?•
ORB
1 AH
ROM.BUFFER.HEAD
DM
?
ROM.BUFFER.T AIL
DM
?
KB.BUFFER
DM
16 DUP
KB.BUFFER.END
LABEL
WORD
ROM.BIOS.DATA
ENDS
CODE.SEB
SEGMENT
ASSUME
CSiCODE.
_SEG
□RB
100H
BEBINx JMP
INIT.VECTORS
3 Initialize vector* and attach to DOS
ROM.KEY BOARD. INT DD
ROM.KEYBOARD.IO DD
BUFFERHEAD DM
BUFFER.. TAIL DM
KEYBOARD.BUFFER DM
KEYBOARD BUFFER.END LABEL
3 Address -for RDM routine
OFFSET KEYBOARD_BUFFER
OFFSET KEYBDARD_BUFFER
160 DUP (0) 3 160-character Input buffer
WORD
I - - - tr* - - - - - — — - - - - -
3 This procedure sends • short beep when the buffer fills.
I - • — - - - - - - - - - - — "
KB.CONTROL EQU 6lH 3 Control bite for keyboard (and speaker)
ERROR_BEEP PROC NEAR
>
I
PUSH AX
PUSH BX
PUSH CX
PUSHF
CLI
MOV BX, 30
IN ALf KB CONTROL
PUSH AX
iBeve the old interrupt enable flag
|Turn off beep during interrupt
3 Number Of cycles for 1/B-sScond tone
3 Bet control information from speaker port
3 Save the control Information
START OF ONE CYCLE;
AND
OUT
MOV
OFF LOOPt
LOOP
OR
OUT
MOV
AL,OFCH
KB.CONTROL, AL
CX, 60
OFF_LOOP
kb1control,Al
CX, 60
3 Turn off the speaker
I Delay for first half cycle
3 Turn on the speaker
3 Del ay for second half cycle
ON.LOOP:
ADD BX , 2
MOV ROM.BUFFER.TA I L , BX
ASSUME DSi CODE.SEG
MOV BX, CS
MOV DS, BX
MOV BX, OFFSET KEYBOARD.BUFFER 3 Reset internal buffer
MOV BUFFER_HEAD, BX
MOV BUFFER_TAIL,BX
BUFFER.OKl
ASSUME DSt CODE_SEO
BT1 3 Interrupts back on
RET
CHECK .CLEAR .BUFFER ENDP
I - - - - - - - - * - — - • - - - * -
3 This procedure checks to see if there are any new characters in the
3 ROM BIOS keyboard buffer If there are, It stuffs them into
I the extended keyboard buffer here.
I - - - - - — -
CHECK.FOR.NEW.CHARACTERS PROC NEAR
PUSH
DS
PUSH
SI
PUSH
BX
PUSH
AX
ASSUME
DBx ROM.BIOS.DATA
MOV
BX, ROM.BIOS.DATA
MOV
DS, BX
3 Set DS for ROM BIOS keyboard buffer
MOV
SI , BUFFER.TAIL
MOV
BX, ROM.BUFFER.HEAD
3 Check If real character In buffer
CHECK .FOR.CHARACTER i
ADD
BX,2
3 Skip over dummy character
CMP
BX, OFFSET KB.BUFFER.END
3 Check for wraparound
JB
DONT.WRAP
3 No need to wrap the pointer
MOV
BX, OFFSET KB.BUFFER
3 Wrap the pointer
DONT.WRAPt
CMP
BX , ROM.BUFFER.TA I L
3 Is there a real character?
JE
NO NEM CHARACTERS
3 No, then return to caller
MOV
AX, CBX 3
3 Yea, move character to Internal buffer
MOV
CSt C81 3 , AX
ADD
SI, 2
yMove to next position
CMP
SI, OFFSET KEYBOARD.BUFFER END 3 Check for wraparound
OB
NOT AT END
MOV
SI, OFFSET KEYBOARD BUFFER
NOT AT END)
CMP
81, BUFFER HEAD
3 Buffer overrun?
JNE
WRITE.TO BUFFER
3 No, then write character to buffer
CALL
ERROR .BEEP
3 Yes, beep and throw out character
MOV
St, BUFFER TAIL
yResdt SI to end of buffer
JMP
SHORT NOT AT KB.END
WRITE.TO.BUFFERi
MOV
BUFFER TAIL, SI
NOT.AT_KB.ENDr
MOV
ROM BUFFER HEAD, BX
JMP
CHECK. FOR.CHARACTER
3 Check if another character in buffer
LOOP
DEC
ONZ
POP
OUT
POPF
POP
POP
POP
RET
ERROR.BEEP
ON LOOP
BX 3200 cycles yet?
BTART.DF.ONE.C YCLE
AX 3 Recover old keyboard information
KB_CONTROL, AL
3 Restore interrupt flag
CX
BX
AX
ENDP
This procedure checks the ROM keyboard buffer to see if some program
has tried to clear this buffer. Me know it's been cleared when the
ROM tail and header overlap. Normally, the new procedure below
keeps a. dummy character in the buffer.
3 Uses] BX,
3 Writes*
?
3 Reads;
BUFFER HEAD, BUFFER TAIL, ROM_BUFFER HEAD,
ROM BUFFER TAIL
KEYBOARD BUFFER, KB BUFFER
CHECK.CLEAR.BUFFER
ASSUME
MOV
MOV
CLI
MOV
CMP
JNE
MOV
MOV
DS* ROM.BIOS.DATA
BX , ROM BIOS DATA
DS, BX
BX, ROM.BUFFER.HEAD
BX , ROM.BUFFER.TAIL
BUFFER.. OK
BX, OFFSET KB BUFFER
ROM.BUFFER.HEAD, BX
;Establlsh pointer to BIOS data
3 Turn off interrupts during this check
3 Check to see if buffer cleared
3 1* the buffer empty?
I No, then everything is
3 Yes, then clear the internal buffer
3 Reset the buffer with word 0 in buffer
NO.NEW.CHARACTERS;
POP AX
POP BX
POP SI
POP DS
RET
CHECK_F0R NEM CHARACTERS
3 This procedure intercepts the keyboard Interrupt and moves any new $
I character* to the ei gftty-cheracter puffer. 3
I- “ '
INTERCEPT.KEYBOARD.lNT PROC tCAR
ASSUME
DSi NOTHING
PUSH
DS
PUSH
BX
PUSH
AX
CALL
CHECK. CL EAR.BUFFER
PUSHF
CALL
ROM.KEYBOARD.INT
CALL
CHECK.FOR.NEW.CHARP
See if
CTRL + ALT pushed, a
ASSUME
DS: ROM.BIOS DATA
MOV
BX, ROM.BIDS DATA
MOV
D5, BX
MOV
AL, KBD FLAG
AND
AL,0CH
CMP
AL, OCH
JNE
DONT.CLEAR BUFFER
MOV
AX, BUFFER TAIL
MOV
BUFFER HEAD, AX
3Chcck for buffer cleared
3 Read scan code with BIOS routines
B 3Transfer any new characters
3 Set DS for ROM BIOS keyboard buffer
;Get status of shift keys into AL
3 Isolate Alt and Ctrl shift flags
3 Are both the Ctrl and Alt keys down?
?No, then don't clear the buffer
3 yes, then clear the buffer
DONT_CLEAR .BUFFER;
72 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
RETURNABLE
SOFTWARE
FOR THE
IBM-PC
(AND AT 20% TO 40% OFF
MANUFACTURERS’ LIST)
Eliminate the risk of buying
software that doesn’t
meet your needs.
With Computer Inventory Control, you eliminate the
risk of buying software that doesn’t meet your needs.
Buy any of the most popular IBM-PC® software pro¬
grams at our discount prices of 20% to 40% off
manufacturers’ list If it doesn’t meet your needs,
return it within 1 5 days for a refund of your purchase
turer’s list price.
To place your order call TOLL FREE
(800) 647-1 200 (outside PA)
For more information and our
FREE catalog call (412) 687-2000
HI
1 — 1
i — -
bi-sgKss.-jgyj
discount Restocking 1
JUNE SPECIALS
LIST
PRICE
FEE
WordStar
$495
$235
$ 74
WordStar Propack
$895
$359
$134
MultiMate
$495
$289
$ 74
Microsoft WORD
$375
$249
$ 56
Microsoft WORD with Mouse
$475
$309
$ 71
Leading Edge Wordprocessor
$365
$239
$ 54
Peach Text 5000
$395
$249
$ 59
Word Perfect
$495
$299
$ 74
dBASE II
$700
$389
$105
R:base 4000
$495
$319
$ 74
Knowledgeman
$500
$319
$ 75
Lotus 1-2-3
$495
$329
$ 74
BASIC Compiler (MiqroSoft)
$395
$269
$ 59
C Compiler (Microsoft)
$500
$319
$ 75 1
FORTRAN Compiler (Microsoft)
$350
$239
$ 52
Norton Utilities
$ 80
$ 56
$ 12
PROKEY 3.0 (NEW)
$130
$ 85
$ 19
Statpac {Waionick Assoc.)
$400
$259
$ 60
Home Accountant Plus
$150
$ 89
$ 22
WE ALSO HAVE SOME GREAT PRICES ON
HARDWARE
AST 64K (6 Pack/ Megaplus)
$269
Hayes 1200B
$449
Princeton Graphics HX-12
$479
CITOH FI 0(40 cps)
$949
| PLUS HUNDREDS OF ADDITIONAL DISCOUNTED ITEMS j
Above prices include a 2% CASH discount
INVENTORY
CONTROL, INC.
153 Techview Terrace • Pittsburgh, PA 15213 • C412D BB7-2DOO
POP AX
MOV
BX,BUFFER HEAD
(Get head pointer
pqp BX
CMP
BX, BUFFER TAIL
(If equal <ZF • 11 1
MOV
AX.tBXl
STI
{Interrupts back on
INTEftCEFT.KEYDqARD.ltfT ENDP
POP
. BX
(Recover registers
, pqp
•v- F®T
TUTCOPCDT i^Cvt
>2 ' .7
anA&ft crwnp
(Throw away flags
( This procedure replaces the ROM BIOS routines for reading a character {
lri i fcitUcn 1 t
fcNUr
ASSUME DSaCODE.BEG
I NTERCEPT.KEYBOARD. I O PROC
STT
I Intor^rlipts back- ctn
DS { Sava current DS
BX {Save BX temporarily
CHECK.CLEAR.BUFFER (Check for buffer cleared
CHECK.FOR.NEW.CHARACTERS I Transfer new characters
BX,CS {Establish pointer to data area
DS, BX
AH, AH jAH-O?
READ_CHARACTER |Y«B, read a Character
AH, 1 >AH-1? »*#M**M*
READ STATUS {Yea, return the status
BX { Let ROM BIOS handle other functi
OB
POP BX
POP DS
ASBUME D8i NOTHING
JMP ROM.KEY BOARD. 10
| — Read the key
ASBUME .DBjtCODE.BEG
READ.CHARACTERs '
STI
MOV
ADD
CMP
JNE
MOV
SAVEJ»P INTER*
MOV
POP
POP
IRET
BX,BUFFER_HEAD
BX, BUFFER.TAIL
READ_CHARACTER
AX,CBX1
BX, 2
BX , OFFBET KEYBOARD
BAVE.PO INTER
BX, OFFSET KEYBOARD.
BUFFER HEAD, BX
BX
(Call ROM BIOS for Other fu
t ABC I I read
{Interrupts back on during loop
{Allow an interrupt to occur
{Interrupts back off
{Get pointer to head of buffer
{Test end of buffer
{Loop until something in buffer
{Get scan code and ASCII code
{Move to next word in buffer
BUFFER.END ;At end Of buffer?
I No, continue
BUFFER ; Yes, reset to buffer start
{Store value in variable
» - ;
3 This procedure Initializes the Interrupt vectors, {
, — ~ - .. - - - w- - - - - - - - - ^ - ~ - ** 1
IN1T.VECT0R9 PROC NEAR
ASSUME DSs VECTORS
PUSH DS (Save old data segment
MOV AX, VECTORS {Bet up the data segment for vectors
MOV QS.AX
CL I {Don’t allow interrupts
MOV AX, KEYBOARD. I NT VECTOR {Save addresses of BIOS routines
MOV RDM KEYBOARD INT,AX
MDV AX, KEYBOARD. INT.VECTORC23
MOV ROM.KE YBOARD. I NT C 2 3 , A X
{Set up new KEYBOARD. I NT vector
MOV KEYBOARD. I NT.VECTOR, OFFSET INTERCEPT.KEYBOARD.INT
MOV KEYBOARD. 1 NT.VECT0RC2] , CS
STI (Allow interrupts again
{Set up KEYBOARD 10 vector
MOV AX , KEYBOARD. I O.VECTOR
MOV ROM.KEYBOARD.IO, AX
MOV AX , KEYBOARD.IO.VECTORE23
MOV R0M.KEYB0ARD.I0C21 , AX
MOV KEYBOARD 10 VECTOR, OFFBET INTERCEPT .KEYBOARD 10
MOV KEYBOARD. IO.VECTOR C23 , CS
{Now set up the keyboard buffer, etc.
ABSUME DSiROM.BI0S.DATA
MOV RX, RQM.BtOS.DATA
MPV DS,AX
CL I
MOV BX, OFFSET KB. BUFFER
MOV ROM BUFFER HEAD, BX
MOV WORD PTR CBX3.0
ADD BX, 2
MOV ROM.BUFFER.TAILjBX
(Don’t allow interrupts i
{Allow interrupts again
— ASCII status
READ.STATUB;
CLI
(Return to calle
(Interrupts off
MOV
INT
IN1T.VECT0RS
DX, OFFSET INI T.VECTORS {End of resident portion
27H (Terminate but stay resident
ENDP
END BEGIN
HOW MANY PCs CAN
i OH THf A HEA© OF A MM?
If you think you know the answer, or
even if you don’t, you might qualify for a
free trial subscription to Softalk for the
IBM Personal Computer.
All an owner of an IBM Personal Com¬
puter (including PCjr) or a Compaq needs
to do is send us a name, an address, and
a computer serial number. In return, we’ll
give you a free trial subscription to the
most useful magazine published for PC
users.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Com¬
puter can be counted on each month to
provide you with the news, tutorials, re¬
views, application stories, industry news,
and, of course, programs that will make
you master of your computer. And there’s
a contest every month, too.
If you already have a subscription to
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
and you’ve read this far anyway, here’s
another chance to win. Send us the
name, address, and computer serial num¬
ber of a friend with a PC or Compaq, and
we’ll send you a free back issue of your
choice or a one-month subscription ex¬
tension.
And if you do know how many PCs can
dance on the head of a pin, let us know
will you?
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Box 7040, Department I
North Hollywood, CA 91605
IBM Personal Computer is a trademark of International Business Machines.
74 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Seeing is believing. OTP™ the Concentric Information
Processor, is the first database software that lets you manage
information VISUALLY, on-screen. What you see is what
you get! No programming, no language, no commands
mid no surprises. ■ Create files, arrange forms,
collect information and produce reports quickly.
Reports look professional, the way you want
them, the first time. The exact format is created
by moving fields and text visually on the screen.
Don't worry about mistakes! You can change your require¬
ments at any time! * Every field is dynamically <c keyed”
for rapid record selection and reporting without smting;
automatic computations for date differences, agings, tick¬
ler dares; help at the touch of a key. • Visit your
IBM® PC dealer today for a visual demonstration.
Seeing is believing. CTP from Concentric Data
Systems, 18 Lyman Street, West boro, MA 0158L
Telephone (617) 366-1122.
CIP
The new standard for information management software.
C IP 3 trademark oT Concentric Date Systems, Inc.
IBM is a registered trade mar of International Business Machines.
JVf eet Jaime Valdez, author,
I M He sits down at the keyboard of his IBM PC. He stares
at the blinking cursor as he loses himself in thought. At last inspiration
strikes, and the writer begins pounding the keyboard with quick jabs ot
both index fingers, the classic hunt-and-peck style favored by the old
school of no-nonsense writers — and by first-graders.
Jaime Valdez is a first-grader at L.L. Pugh Elementary School, iocated
in a low-income, mostly Hispanic, neighborhood of Houston, With most
children Jaime's age, what he is doing at tine keyboard would be, at best,
pretend — pretend they were typing at a computer, pretend they were
Writing To Read:
a^;OO0 Kick Help IBM Test
UnconYCutfon^ laylnhcj The6ry
writing, perhaps even pretend they could read. But there's no make-be¬
lieve about it for Jaime. He is one of several thousand kindergarten and
first-graders across the United States who are testing a program that uses
an IBM PC to teach children how to read by simultaneously teaching
them to write.
It's a concept that doesn't necessarily get immediate acceptance from
educators. The way most of us learned written English followed a stan¬
dard pattern, First learn the ABCs, then how to transform those printed
By Ron White characters into spoken sounds, and finally
_ how to convert those sounds back into writ-
ing* The logic behind the scheme appears irre¬
futable* After all, how can you write a word if
you haven't read it first?
Don't be too sure. First read Jaime's story.
It's called "Space."
One day 1 wanted to go to Mars and 1 did , /
bilt a space chair, it goes up. I saw a marchen
her name was Patty we made frieds. She had a
green mother and father I took her back to
Earth . Then she said can my mother and father
come to see Earth. 1 said yes . Then we uie/if to
go get them. We played for a little bit . Then we
uienf to Saturn we saw marchens that came
from mars they wher very friendly. We stayed
thar for a long time. While we wher thar we
sau> rings around it that look like icesicles they
shined bright. The peopel wher blue green,
whith seven eyes , three mouths , and one leg
and no nose , they had stars that look like
klenexs boxes. The dose looks like flowers.
The flowers look like medacen bottles. The
kids do not go to school. They lem by home
computers. They eat potato pills, they drink
milk from the milky way factory. For desert
they eat marshmehs . their houses look like
miflr cartons.
Or here's a story by another first-grader,
more down-to-earth but still filled with writing
skills few children in the first grade attain. The
piece is a variation on the classic theme, 'What
I Did on My Vacation." It's written by Luis
Guerra.
My Spring Vacation
I went to Mexico before we got there we
went to McAllen. We went to a store there then
we got into the car and went to Mexico. On the
way 1 saw some cows and horses and the big
dipper it was big and shiny l went to my cous¬
ins house they had some chickens and some
birds and a big cow and some turkys. We
helped feed the animals , Sometimes me and
my brother and cousin would go to a store
across the river l had a cake for my birthday in
Mexico , One day we icerif to Monterrey and
bought some records and cakes To get to Mon¬
terey we had to drive through a divided moun¬
tain. It was very high and very pretty my ears
would pop when we went
through the mountains.
We did not want to come
back to Houston. We en¬
joyed our spring vacation
very much .
Of course, even soft-
core grammarians will
notice some original spel¬
ling and punctuation in
both pieces* But you'll
also notice Jaime and Luis
writing words that, while
they're in many six-year-
olds' vocabularies, can't
be found in first-grade
primers. And what's
more important, Jaime
and Luis are not particu¬
larly exceptional chil¬
dren* But like many of
the other first -graders at
Pugh, they are writing
whole paragraphs and
reading third- and fourth-
grade books.
The results among the kindergarten and
first-grade children at Pugh are typical of the
way some twenty-five hundred children in 225
schools across the country have picked up
reading and writing during a two-year test by
IBM of a program called Writing To Read. The
Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New
Jersey is doing a thorough study of the test
program and will release the formal results of
the experiment this summer. But a few scat¬
tered results already in, plus the informal reac¬
tions of teachers, indicate that the program
may be a giant step in computerized education.
In the Raleigh- Wake County school system
in North Carolina, for example, four hundred
kindergarten students who have gone through
the Writing 7b Read program were compared
to a control group that was taught reading and
writing through a different, but still enriched,
program. All the students were given the Cali¬
fornia Achievement Test, and the results for
the noncomputerized control group were ex¬
traordinarily good. They achieved a mean
score at the first-grade 69th percentile level;
that means those kindergarten children could
read and write better than 69 percent of the
students a year ahead of them in school. But
the results among students under the Writing
To Read program were even better— at the
89th percentile. Unofficial results from other
schools indicate that after the first year of the
program 63 percent of the kindergarten chil¬
dren could compose complete sentences and
even stories. Usually at that age, a child may
be able to write his name and a few other
words. Among first-graders, 93 percent were
writing.
What has made possible such extraordi¬
nary results is a combina¬
tion of an idea and a tool.
The idea came from Dr.
John Henry Martin, a
teacher, principal, and
superintendent who re¬
tired to Florida in 1975.
Martin had always been
intrigued by the learning
process— how a child en¬
counters a new fact and
assimilates that fact into
the organization of know¬
ledge he already carries
around in his head* He
believed educators gener¬
ally were neglecting the
importance of physical
action in learning. The
physical act of writing a
word somehow embeds
that word deeper in a
child's brain than merely
reading the word or even
speaking it.
"It goes back to an¬
cient times/' Martin says, 'The finger in the
sand is the oldest writing instmment* But it
wasn't until 1910 that a piece of Chinese tech¬
nology became cheap enough to be used in
school rooms. That was paper* Before then pa-
( Above) An example of the graphics
used in the Writing To Read program.
(Top ) Clockwise from lower left: Este¬
ban Graham, Anh Tienr Aaron Phil¬
lips, Monika Cortez , Grade Medina
show off their PC and Writing To Read
software*
78 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
per was too expensive to be used for practice.
The slate and chalk became the symbol of the
rural school, and reading ceased to be a hand¬
writing exercise.
"By the 1920s, educators started talking
about teaching reading in terms of whole
words. Phonetic was out. For sixty years read¬
ing became an eyesight proposition," he adds.
"Children were handcuffed when they came
into the classroom."
The tool that was joined with Martin's idea
came from IBM. Martin had been impressed
by a book written by one of his mentors, Dr.
Ben Wood. Wood's book recounted an experi¬
ment using typewriters in elementary school.
Wood, who had also been a consultant to IBM
founder Thomas J. Watson, set up the first
meeting between IBM and Martin, who
wanted to get hold of some IBM Selectric type¬
writers to test his theories.
One of those theories was that when a child
is first learning handwriting, forming each one
of those strange abstract designs can be such a
laborious process that the child loses track of
the word or thought he was trying to express.
Martin hoped to make a quicker connection
between the thought and the written expres¬
sion of it by providing youngsters with type¬
writers. Then all that would be required to
create a letter would be a quick stab at a key-
top. The Selectric was important because it
was the first typewriter that didn't have keys a
child could jam.
In 1977 IBM loaned Martin sixteen Selec-
trics, and Martin began an experiment with
126 first-graders in the Martin County, Florida,
school system. At the end of two years, preex¬
periment 44-percentile scores had been raised
to the 82nd percentile. Satisfied with the results
of the experiment, Martin set out to adapt an
even better tool to his theories— the computer.
Martin hired programmers to convert his
theories to computer software. Despite his
agreement to work with IBM for the testing
and eventual marketing of Writing To Read,
Martin is still highly possessive of the pro¬
gram. "I own it. IBM has no right to change a
word of it," he says.
Nevertheless, IBM is heavily committed to
Writing To Read. At more than 100 schools
IBM donated more than 300 Personal Com¬
puters and typewriters, 900 tape recorders,
2,410 sets of earphones, almost ten thousand
floppy disks, 12,885 audiocassettes, 104,410
student workbooks, and 9,000 story books.
Officially, the program is not being market¬
ed, but some one hundred twenty other
schools that had heard of the test after it began
approached IBM about joining the experi¬
ment. IBM sold them the equipment and pro¬
gram at a reduced rate, an IBM spokesman
says. And although the program has not even
been formally announced, unofficially IBM
personnel speak proudly of it. The likelihood
is that IBM will be offering it to schools as soon
as the Educational Testing Service, as expected,
verifies the unofficial reports of the achieve¬
ments made by children in the pilot project.
IBM has not yet determined a price for the soft¬
ware.
What schools would be buying, IBM spokes¬
men are saying, is not the type of education
program that had been on the market previ¬
ously — one that presented a simple drill exer¬
cise to reinforce the instruction presented by
the teacher. Instead, the computer would be¬
come the primary instructor, with the teacher
reinforcing what the computer teaches.
"There is tremendous variability among
teachers— from the dull and unimaginative to
the extraordinarily creative and warm," Mar¬
tin explains. "Some of the methods of educa¬
tion have been subject to idiosyncratic uses. A
computer can diminish that reliance on teacher
variability."
Martin points out that Thomas Edison
wrote in 1879 that the camera and motion pic¬
ture projector would replace books. The same
has been said about radio and television.
Those prophecies have always been wrong,
but Martin believes that the computer may
fulfill its promise of being the ultimate pro¬
vider of information and learning.
"The computer is movies, radio, and televi¬
sion combined," Martin says. "It's all of these
audiovisual devices— plus the typewriter. And
it is interactive if the software is so designed.
Movies are not interactive; you react. Same
with television and radio. But the keyboard of
a computer is interactive. The learner is en¬
gaged in intellectual conversation with the
computer."
At Houston's Pugh Elementary, that con¬
versation is a quiet one. In fact, the first im¬
pression a visitor to the school's computer lab
has is one of exceptional order and quietude
for a room full of six-year-olds. The children
are working separately and with a minimum of
adult supervision on different stages of the
reading program.
"Behavior problems disappear in here,"
says Adela Moore, the teacher in charge of the
computer lab. "This is one class they don't
want to miss. If they get to come here early,
they get really excited. They like the hands-on
activity, and using the typewriters and com¬
puters makes them feel grown up.
"At first," she adds, "it was just a video
game to them. But now that they're more into
it, it's a learning game. They're very competi¬
tive."
Like all the other kindergarten and first-
grade classes at the school, these students from
Linda Cesak's first-grade class visit the com¬
puter lab for forty-five minutes every day.
(The only exceptions are classes where Span¬
ish-speaking students are still learning spoken
English. Pugh teachers, however, have been in¬
formally testing Writing To Read for teaching
English as a second language— with some
promising but inconclusive results.)
When the students arrive at the computer
lab, Moore gives them their assignments. Each
child proceeds at his or her own rate. Some
kindergarten children finish the complete pro¬
gram of ten "cycles" in six months; others take
two years. The children keep track of every
step of the progress in a workbook, and each
day they pick up where they left off the pre¬
vious day.
Today, some of the children go to a bank of
IBM Selectrics and audiocassette tape record¬
ers. Some use the recorders to listen to stories
as they follow along in books. Others slip used
computer punch cards into the typewriter and
follow the tape's instructions to type different
words on the backs of the old cards. They type
with one or two fingers, their eyes darting
swiftly over the keyboard in search of the cor¬
rect letters. The typing is reinforcement for the
lessons they've been taught on the computers.
Eight IBM PCs are lined up on short, six-
year-old-sized tables that wrap around two
walls. Connected to the PCs are speech synthe¬
sizers that allow the computer to speak to the
students, in a calm female voice, through two
sets of headphones. One part of Martin's the¬
ory is that children will learn better in pairs be¬
cause they can reinforce and help each other.
Close to the end of the two-year experiment,
however, the children in this class are now at
such different stages of the program that most
of them are working alone.
Aaron Phillips is one of those students. He
is four feet of restless movements and shy grins
topped by alert, dark eyes. He takes one of ten
disks that make up the Writing To Read pro¬
gram and inserts it into the PC. (Before the
program began, the students spent a week
learning about computers and the care and
The counter fe ra<ftO, woVt^s,
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 79
handling of floppies.) With a hackers assur- voice would have simply repeated its instruc- each of which teaches the child three words. A
ance, Aaron hits control-alt-delete to reboot tions to "type pih." Martin feels that one of the total of thirty words hardly seems impressive
the machine. While the computer is cranking advantages of a computer is that it is endlessly by itself. But the words are chosen in such a
up, he slips on a pair of headphones. patient. In situations where a human teacher way that once a child has mastered them, he
The computer finally produces a title may become frustrated and let his or her impa- knows what Martin calls a “temporary stan-
screen— "Writing To Read”—m bright, danc- tience show to the student, the computer sim- dardized alphabet": the basic sounds of the
ing colors. Next comes a menu that offers ply repeats instructions as often as necessary, twenty-six letters plus forty-two phonemes—
Aaron a choice of three word or two sentence always calmly and without a hint of disap- such as sh, th, and ch. With the characters for
exercises, one of them called "Silly Sentences." proval. If Aaron had pressed the wrong keys these sounds, the child can write virtually any
Over the headphone the woman's voice too many times, the program would have de- word he can think of, Martin says.
- "A child comes to elementary school with a
vocabulary somewhere in the mid-two-thou¬
sand range," he says. "Put that against the
standard primers with only four hundred
words for the student to work with and based
/-s • t _ r on the false logic that they must control the
Sp^nd 4 concern tor qs, but child's vocabulary. We're unlocking children's
• | - J i i . full vocabulary. We're allowing them to write
li drdnT concern the ku/s. such wonderful words as 'furious' and 'refrig¬
erator.'"
Of course, the children may wind up spell-
matches the instructions written on the screen termined that Aaron needed more practice. It ing these words "furius" or "refrigerater." That
by prompting Aaron to make a selection or would have looped him back to an earlier stage was one of the worries teachers at Pugh had
press the space bar. of the lesson without ever dropping a hint that when Writing To Read was introduced to
Aaron chooses "PIG." The computer an- he had just "flunked" a test. them,
nounces that it is "THINKING" for several sec- Once he has successfully completed a les- "Spelling was a concern for us, but it didn't
onds, and then the color monitor displays a son, Aaron moves on to other phases of the concern the kids," says Emily Cole, principal
drawing of a pig, with the word "pig" spelled program— typing the words on a Selectric, of Pugh. 'The teachers follow up with lessons
out next to it. The voice on the headphones writing letters by hand in a workbook, or lis- on such things as the silent E. But generally the
says, "This is a pig. Say the word pig." tening to recordings of classic children's sto- children just seem to pick up the correct spell-
"Pig," Aaron says. ries. All the other phases are designed to ing once they've seen the word in print."
The drawing is replaced by the alphabet, reinforce the session at the computer. Martin pointed out that Writing To Read
displayed around the edge of the screen so that There are ten segments to Writing To Read, presents each word as it is spelled correctly and
the letters leave a blank area stage-center on
the screen.
"Pih," announces the voice on the head¬
phones, and the lowercase letter p comes danc¬
ing out to the center of the screen. The voice
sounds out the vowel sound in "pig" — ih—
and the i prances over to take its place next
to the p. "Guh," and the g joins them. "Pig,"
the voice says.
As the letters march back to their original
positions, the lesson repeats itself, asking
Aaron to speak the sound of each letter.
Aaron, staring at the computer screen as if it
were a Saturday morning cartoon show, re¬
peats each sound. Then the voice tells Aaron
to "type pih," Aaron scans the keyboard and
jabs the P key, and the letter moves to center.
Later, Aaron is rewarded and at the same
time given a sly lesson on sentences when he is
presented an illustrated "silly sentence" — "Did
you ever see a pig in bed 7"
At times the program will ask Aaron to
clap his hands or stamp his feet when he re¬
peats a word. Martin's research has indicated
that children remember things better when a
physical action is involved, whether stamping
feet or pushing a key top.
"If you can engage a learner's eyes, ears,
hands, and mouth, he'll learn better than if he
only works with his eyes," Martin maintains.
If Aaron had pressed the wrong key, the
80 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM. Personal Computer
IPIICIK aV CAIRO
ANY CARD * « \y
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR
YOU'RE INVITED
ANNOUNCING
VALENTINE
Mulatto os o* ***
raMo» *» ff
Plus $2.00 han dU ng/ shipping
HAPPY FATHERS DAY
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY
CONGRATULATIONS
actual card
Shown are actual
l cards primed with
I ZCARD PRINT.
1 Pick from over 30 pictures, add a personalized message, and be
k first to send your friends a customized computer generated ZCARD
greeting, invitation, anouncemenf or thank you note for any occasion;
business related or just personal!
Use the ZCARD PRINT program to create ZCARDS on standard computer
paper or for a more professional look, use the high quality, heavy weight paper stock
£~and matching envelopes furnished. (Additional packets of 50 sheets of paper and
( ! I envelopes available for only $12,95 plus $2.00 handling/shipping.)
H AH D WARE/S 0 FT WAR E REQUIREMENTS
ing
^ m — ^ * IBM PC, PC/XT or equivalent with 64K min. memory, a I least ona double
sided diskette drive and PC-DOS
IBM PCjr, or equivalent with 12&K min. memory, al least one double sided
diskette drive and PC-DOS
Printers: Mos( dot matrix graphics printers including IBM, I6M PCjr
Compact. Epson. Gemini. Okidala with plug A play, or iheir equivalents
Print banners of your choice
in 15 character sizes from
3/4" to 12" high, standard Of
reverse image with nested
repeat phrases for
celebrations, announce¬
ments, etc. on regular
or wide paper
Order ZCARD PRINT AND
ZBANNER together and pay
only S 19 95 for ZBANNER!
TO ORDER CALL 1-800-251-0071
OR MAIL CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO'
OMNI International, Inc.
P.O BOX 11861, DEPT. Z
(awCjrr)
KANSAS CITY. MISSOURI 64138
Missouri residents add 6Vs% tax
WS4
’OC/
(Missouri} 1-816-356-7612
GST Weekdays 8 AM to 5 PM
ZAZDA SOFTWARE IBM PC, ism PC/XT and IBM PCjr registered
Marketed exclusively through OMNI international, Inc. hademarki ot Insernatian&l Business Machines Corporation
as it is spelled phonetically. A picture of a rab¬
bit, for example, is accompanied by the spell¬
ings "rabbit" and "rabit."
But correct spelling has simply never been a
concern of Martin's. In a manner that brims
with cavalier calculation, he dismisses entirely
the necessity for spelling words correctly from
the outset. He would prefer that children— and
adults— not be bothered with it.
"The phonetic analysis of English spelling is
a terribly confusing process, even if it works,"
he says.
It's a problem that may nag us as adults
anytime we start to write a word that we often
use only in speech. We may write the word so
infrequently that we're not at all sure how it's
spelled. Such encounters send us scurrying to
the dictionary or, Martin says, simply lead us
to substitute another word— maybe not a
word with exactly the meaning we wanted but
one we can spell.
"What we really have to do is teach a whole
adult generation that they don't know how to
write," Martin says. "When they're writing,
they're only writing the first draft. The process
of writing is called rewriting. The finest piece
of political literature by the greatest political
stylist is called The Declaration of Independ¬
ence, and it went through seventeen drafts
before Jefferson felt it was good enough to
show to Franklin and Adams. And they re¬
wrote it some more.
'We've got to get rid of this notion that a
child's first draft should be neat and clean so
they can put it on the wall with a doily for par¬
ents' night. This premature insistence that you
have to be able to spell the best words in your
vocabulary is one of the great inhibitors of
adults. You should just write it the way it
sounds until you see it in a book.
'We let the children in on the secret from
day one that the way the word is spelled in a
book is what they're going to get to eventually.
They don't have a problem with that," he
adds. "Almost never does the single most com¬
mon word in the English language get spelled
'thu,' although that's the way it sounds. The
children see it as 'the' in books and they pick it
up with no problems."
Still, a computer program openly embrac¬
ing misspelled words is not one likely to offer
immediate appeal to most elementary school
teachers. The teachers in the Houston School
District are on better terms with computer
technology than teachers in many other cities.
The school district has a technology depart¬
ment staffed by seventy people whose task is to
evaluate requests for classroom computers,
distribute the equipment, and eventually make
every teacher in the district computer-literate.
The department even has programmers who
are writing the district's own word processing,
financial, and English-as-a-second-language
software. And before the arrival of the IBMs,
Pugh already had several Apple and Radio
Shack computers that had been bought par¬
tially with money raised at food sales.
Even with this familiarity with classroom
computers, the teachers at Pugh did not em¬
brace Writing To Read fully until the end of the
first year.
"Everyone was skeptical at first," says Bill
McCauslen, a member of the school district's
technology department who has been keeping
- - - - ^ - T - ^ -
a watch over Writing To Read at the three
schools where it's being tested. "Some teachers
were really hostile to it, especially the second-
grade teachers who would get the children af¬
ter the program and would have to correct all
the mistakes."
So serious were the doubts among the fac¬
ulty at Pugh that for the first few months after
the experiment began, the teachers met with
principal Cole once a week to decide if they
would continue it.
"When we first saw the program, we were
leery of it," Cole says. "There were too many
things that were innovative thoughts. There
was a real controversy among the staff over it.
We didn't mind if the program just turned out
to be ineffective, because the children would be
getting the same material in other ways. But
we didn't want to do something that might
hurt the children's progress."
But as computer teacher Moore says, "It
worked in spite of us." Cole says the school
will continue to monitor the students after
they've left the program to see what lasting
effects the program may have, but she is con¬
vinced that Writing To Read gets results in
teaching both reading and writing.
"It's an excellent program. When a child is
completing a cycle, you can see a light dawn¬
ing," she says.
Cole wants to continue the program after
the test period ends this summer, and IBM has
agreed to let the equipment stay there for at
least another year.
"If IBM didn't offer it. I'd buy it," she says.
Praise for Writing To Read also comes from
the teachers who are on the front lines. Mattie
Jo Thrasher has been a kindergarten teacher
for fifteen years. She admits to having had
qualms about the program until she saw the
results.
"I've never had children who wrote before.
Occasionally one could write a few words. But
almost every child this year can write some¬
thing. I'll never cease to be amazed at it.
"It's really more work for the teachers;
there's a lot more to keep track of," she adds.
"But the computer explains things so well, it's
worth it."
Dianne Punch was one of those second-
grade teachers who feared they might be inher¬
iting the problems of a poorly conceived
experiment. But now she reports that the sec¬
ond-graders who went through the first year of
the experiment are reading books that are one
to two years above their grade, are writing
more than second-graders she has taught in the
past, and are showing no signs of being poor
spellers. Her only complaint is that Writing To
Read doesn't go far enough.
"It underestimated itself," Punch says.
"Some of the children mastered it in six
months. They spent lessons one through five
learning words but not knowing what's going
on. Then suddenly it all came together and
they zoomed through the rest of the cycles.
And they were bored after that."
(Martin, told of Punch's complaint, pointed
out that the average child should get through
the program's ten cycles in about six months.
Only the slower children would require two
years, he said, adding that there are plans to
expand Writing To Read into more advanced
lessons. There are also plans to make the pro¬
gram available for the PCjr, which will make it
more affordable.)
The one person not at all surprised by all
this is, of course, Martin himself. As some un¬
official results of the experiment were coming
in toward the end of last semester, Martin was
beaming at the scores as proof of his theories
and those of other educators that he built on.
"Montessori in 1910 in Rome found it im¬
perative to teach children's minds through
their fingertips. She used sandpaper letters for
the tactile, kinesthetic stimulation," he says.
"The Spaldings, a husband-and-wife team,
wrote The Writing Road to Reading. Piaget
worked in Paris to organize information in a
logical pattern that a child can learn better.
'My work is derivative from the whole his¬
torical pattern," he says. "These findings are a
confirmation of the earlier efforts."
But later, in a less modest moment, Martin
couldn't resist adding: "And it's the best unan¬
nounced product IBM has in its system." A
"Almost every child this ye<# can vjrlte somethlnq.
V\\ nev*r ceae<* to omxed at ft, )r
82 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
■ *rodwc< .nt£.Tf^ cp^tO'i^
•*HgJ
^ ^50^7 ^aoo--1
^Jet^Sea'0'0
“S^cki^
c'pn tof\a(e -Sea'
sBWffio*0'*
SSgSgSSS*
«*£$ <**’**
tsVte^
«*!.«&
>g»>'
wgsgsP®
"‘’SK^****
tOe r\tW®7 «tO'^ rr
'IBM fs a trademark of the international Business Machines Corporation.
'COMPAQ is a trademark of the COrlfl^Q Computer Corporation.
V f -
Garbage in, garbage out.
Since computers were invented, the conventional wis¬
dom has held that input that doesn’t conform to the computer’s
highly structured needs will result in unintelligible output.
Which meant that you had to learn to think like a
computer in order to use one.
Trouble is, the world isn’t organized to suit computers.
Data is never collected in the way you want to retrieve it. That’s
why traditional, rigidly structured databases often wind up
hindering your work more than they help.
DayFlo offers a new approach to database management
needs. It’s a Fluid Format™ Personal Information Manager.
Which means it approaches the world the same way you do:
taking in unorganized data and organizing it into meaningful
information.
DayFlo is a powerful tool for your IBM® PC XT. It accepts
both structured and unstructured data. When you want to
extract information, just type in the key words you’re looking
for. Instantly, DayFlo organizes the data according to your
criteria. And reorganizes it according to new criteria whenever
you wish.
Information from other programs, spreadsheets, word
processing or accounting files, virtually any data in the system
can be assimilated by DayFlo. And once the information is at
hand, DayFlo lets you manipulate it at will to produce letters,
memos, reports and much more. You can work at your com¬
puter the same way you work at your desk, even switching
quickly from task to task, without ever losing your place.
DayFlo’s concept is as simple as it is revolutionary. You
no longer have to think for the computer. Instead, it can help
you think better for yourself. Which
leads, inevitably, to a brand-new version
of computing’s fundamental law.
Garbage in. Information out.
DayFlo, Inc., 2500 Michelson Dr, Bldg. 400, Irvine, CA 92715. Call Now: (800) 7DAYFLO (Outside CA), (800) CDAYFLO (CA Only)
DayFlo and Fluid Format are trademarks of DayFlo, Inc. © 1984 DayFlo, Inc.
Mr. Chips Plays Your PC
Like a One Man Band
Mr. Chips, the new multi-function
card from Orange Micro, adds a full
ensemble of features to your IBM®
PC. Memory, printer ports, and a
clock are standard, and you'd
expect them on a top quality board.
But computing is changing.
Soon computers will take care of
everyday things; like watering the
lawn, or turning on your lights when
it gets dark. And only Mr. Chips can
do this now. These capabilities are
standard, so your growing needs
won't require additional equipment.
There's also a dual game port, so
you can duel to the end, by yourself
or with a friend.
Every Mr. Chips comes with Chip-
disk™ software, for RAM disk and
print spoofing. With RAM disk you
set up your PC's memory to act like
a disk drive. This means much
faster execution and searching of
programs. Print spooling sets your
PCs RAM to serve as a printer
buffer, so you can compute even
while your printer is printing.
You can orchestrate
remarkably low price.
Visit your dealer and see for your¬
self: Mr Chips is the multifunction
card for today. . . and tomorrow.
The First Multi-function Card with 9 Standard Features
* Parallel Port*: Great for getting fast printouts on
efficient dot matrix printers.
* Serial Port: The most popular way to access high
grade letter quality printers or phone modem
communications.
■ 64K-256K RAM: Upgrade your PC's memory to
handle powerful integrated software and other larger
programs.
* Clock/Calendar: Accurately keep track of time and
date, even when your computer is turned off.
* Dual Game Port*: Accommodate two complete joy¬
sticks at once, so you can play alone or duel with a
friend. Also for use with CAD/CAM software.
* Real World Interface: This innovative port can moni¬
tor and control equipment like thermostats, moisture
detectors, photocells and other independent devices.
■ B$R is a registered trademark of the BSR Corporator)
M ISM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporal ion
* BSRT1<AC Line Controller*: Control your lights, appli¬
ances, security systems, or anything that plugs into
an AC wall socket
* Chipdisk RAM Disk: Set your PC memory to act like
a disk drive. Your programs will run much faster than
with conventional disk drives,
* Chipdisk Print Spooler: Your PC memory will serve
as a printer buffer, so you won't have to wait for your
printer anymore.
'Cables available separately
HOrange micro
M lnc.
1400 N. LAKEV1EW AVE., ANAHEIM, CA 92807 USA
(714) 779 2772 TELEX: 183511CSMA
© Orange Micro, lnc., 1934
[(V|4UM-Vj ' X Su0tc VUt '//
Wj
IggpIPi- ')a
BASICALLY SPBAKMG
CZx
P$K£ LCN. PT< ^ SVBLC Y fCR STmT
ttCtA CIS SK
OR 1ST i
by John Dickinson
IV
Basic Car Care
robably the best part about learning to
write your own Basic programs is that you
can do useful things with programs of your
own that you couldn't readily do with pre¬
written or store bought ones.
For example, let s suppose your car breaks down once too often and
you buy a new one* Most people think about car performance and
maintenance when their cars are brand-new; as a car gets older the
tendency is to take it for granted, ever though it needs more attention
immediate mode for any tankful of gas {be sure to note the parentheses
if you try it), but let s start developing our new program in Basics
deferred mode. Since we re going to be adding to the program and
changing it quite a bit (which means running it several times as well),
there's no sense in having to type the whole thing in again every time.
Besides, you can learn something new.
Start Basic as you normally do, and type:
auto
You'll see:
than it did when it was new.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a computer program to help you track
your cars performance and to remind you when regula r ma i ntenance is
required? By monitoring the car s performance, such a program could
also tell you when your car needed special attention. You won't find
any such program on the shelves at your computer store — so let's write
our own, in Basic*
This month well start out by creating a program that just tracks a
car's gas mileage and rates its performance in that area. Later, well add
features to the program so it can help with maintenance scheduling,
track repairs and costs, and compute the overall operating cost per
mile,
As we develop the program you'll learn quite a few new things
about Basic, including how to use relational operators and if state¬
ments, ways to organize and maintain a program's data, tricks for con¬
trolling display formats and manipulating the display screen, tips on
using your printer, and how to reorganize a Basic program as your
ideas develop.
There are many ways to design a computer program. The easiest is
to start by writing a piece of code that handles a small aspect of the
problem at hand and then make changes to it later on as you see ways
to enhance its function and add new features. Because Basic's working
environment is interactive, it's fairly easy to change a program around
as you develop it; but even though it's easy, you can still make mis¬
takes, It s usually simple enough to recover from an error, but it's a
good idea nevertheless to make a backup copy of vour working Basic
disk from time to time; that way you re sure to be able to recover if you
make a serious mistake while changing your program.
The simplest thing our program has to do is compute a car's gas
mileage. The calculation itself is easy:
Gas mileage = miles driven / gallons used
Everyone knows the formula, and many of you have been keeping
track of your car s mileage as the cost of gasoline (and diesel fuel) has
made fuel consumption a matter of increasing concern. All you've had
to do is note the odometer mileage and gallons of fuel loaded at each
Fill-up, and then do this calculation:
Gas mileage — (new odometer miles “ old odometer miles) /
gallons loaded
It would be simple enough to get Basic to compute this formula in
10 -
appear on your screen. You are now in the Basic editor's automatic
input mode, and the cursors position indicates that Basic is set to ac¬
cept input for your first program statement on line 10. In automatic
input mode, Basic automatically generates line numbers for you to use
COfAP0''5*
The * Software Store
isrnmm’
WE OFFER . . .
■ PROMPT. COURTEOUS SERVICE
AND SUPPORT
-WIDE SELECTION
• and GREAT PRICES
for ail your
IBM - PC/XT and PC jr needs:
RECREATION • BUSINESS • EDUCATION * UTILITY
and accessories
□ IBM - PC/XT
tir
Mail Order Only!
PLEASE WRITE OR CALL FOR FREE CATALOG
The a Software Store
2549 CLEVELAND. GRANitE CITY. II 82040
9 A.M, - 6 P,M, MON^SAT.
Dali I ‘BOO es 1-8 791 Illinois Re^ Call 1 61 8 876 21 55
We accept MasterCard a r VISA
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 87
in your program; it continues doing so until you exit from automatic
mode by typing the control-break key combination. For example, if
you type:
10 let old. odometer! = 0 [Enter]
line 20 will appear automatically, ready for you to enter another state¬
ment:
20 -
The line your cursor is on when you leave automatic input mode is not
saved in memory, so be sure you've entered the last program statement
you want saved before you type control-break.
Automatic input mode normally starts with line 10 and increments
each new line number by 10, but you can tell it to start on a different
line and use a different increment. The more general format of the auto
command is:
auto {starting line}, {increment}
For example, to start automatic input mode on line 100 with an incre¬
ment of 5, you would type:
auto 100,5
Automatic input mode can be used to add new lines to a program or
to replace existing lines — as well as starting a new program. If you use
automatic input mode to replace lines, any line generated that already
contains a Basic statement will be marked with an asterisk, like this:
20*-
lf you just press the enter key when an asterisk is shown, the original
statement on the "asterisked" line won't be changed.
Continue using automatic input mode as you finish entering our
first attempt at the Car Care program. When you're done and have
exited from automatic input mode, your screen should look like this
(remember, you can type in upper or lower case; we're showing upper
case here just to make it easier for you to check your listing):
Turn your business partner
into a cribbage partner.
Runs on both monochrome and color display of IBM-PC
and PC-XT • History of game explained through entertaining
on-screen text, graphics and music * Tutorial teaches rules,
scoring, and strategies, plus examples, to the beginning player
• Multiple skill levels for the advanced player • Easy to learn,
easy to play, but tough to beat • Developed by Tailored Data,
Inc., designers of nationally acclaimed; software for IBM
computers • Send check or money order for S29.95 [MN res.
add 6% sales tax) plus S 1.50 shipping to: CRIBBAGE PARTNER,
Tailored Data, Inc., 4940 Viking Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55435
CribbagePartner
From Tkilored Data, Inc.
auto
10 LET OLD. ODOMETER! = 0
20 LET NEW. ODOMETER! = 239
30 LET GALLONS.LOADED! = 18.3
40 LET MILES. DRIVEN! = NEW. ODOMETER! -
OLD. ODOMETER!
50 LET GAS.MILEAGE! = MILES.DRIVEN! /
GALLONS.LOADED!
60 PRINT GAS.MILEAGE!
70 — [Ctrl][Break]
Ok
You won't see anything displayed when you press control-break; we
printed it just to be sure you didn't type it in until you were on line 70.
You might want to stop for a moment to look at the variables and
constants in the program and see how they're used. All the variables are
single-precision real numbers (note the "I" suffix on each name), and
constants are assigned to three of them in the first three let statements.
These constants, which represent our new car's first fill-up, are the data
we'll start with. The next two lines contain let statements that do the
calculation for Miles. driven! and Gas. mileage!, and the last line dis¬
plays the results for Gas. mileage! on the screen. When you run the
program (remember, you can use the F2 key as a substitute for typing
run, if you wish), your screen will display
13.06011
which is the program's calculated Gas. mileage! for our new car's first
tankful.
That's not great mileage, but it's the first tankful in a new car, and, as
those of you who have kept track for your own cars know, one tank of
gas alone does not give a reliable indication of a car's gas mileage. The
easiest way to better determine our gas mileage is to see how many
miles we get from our next tankful.
To do that, we'll just change lines 10, 20, and 30 to enter the data for
our next fill-up. You'll notice that the new data assigned to Old. odome¬
ter! is the value that was previously used for New. odometer! (this in¬
formation will come in handy later on). Try to remember to use all of
the Basic editing tricks you learned last month as you make these
changes:
10 LET OLD. ODOMETER! = 239
20 LET NEW. ODOMETER! = 537
30 LET GALLONS.LOADED! = 18.2
You can substitute data for your own car if you want, but it might be
better to use these numbers for a while, just to be sure you've got every¬
thing right. Running the program this time produces:
16.37363
Better mileage for this second tankful, but we still don't have enough
information to tell us just how well (or poorly) we're doing.
One thing we could do is compare our car's gas mileage against
some standard that it ought to be meeting. Figuring out a standard for
gas mileage on new cars is easy because the expected mileage is printed
on the price and information stickers. If you have an older car, you can
use some figure for gas mileage that you think the car ought to be get¬
ting; later on, we'll be able to use our Basic program to help us deter¬
mine what a car's standard gas mileage ought to be.
Let's say the sticker on our new car indicates we should expect about
15.5 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. We'll use
that figure as a standard in our program. How do we use this informa¬
tion in Basic? If we think about the gas mileage problem in logical
terms (never mind Basic syntax for a moment), we might state it this
way:
IF gas mileage is equal to 15.5 THEN performance is equal to
standard
ELSE performance is not equal to standard
Can Basic handle this kind of problem? Sure. Here's one simple way.
Add the following line to your program:
88 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
70 IF GAS. MILEAGE! = 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
standard"
ELSE PRINT "Performance is not standard"
As you type this new line in, you might notice that when you reach
the right-hand edge of the screen Basic just keeps going on the next line,
starting at the left edge (readers with forty-character screens may al¬
ready have noticed this phenomenon). This is perfectly all right; Basic
can handle statements as long as 255 characters, which is a little more
then three eighty-character lines.
If you want to make things a bit neater, you can either add spaces
(Basic doesn't mind spaces between commands, operators, variables,
or constants — just don't use them in the middle of a variable name!), or
you can start a new display line at any point by typing control-enter. If
you do this, the new display line you type will be part of the same Basic
statement (it will be part of the same-numbered Basic program line),
and Basic will automatically insert enough spaces for you to keep
things neat. To tidy up line 70, you might type:
70 IF GAS.MILEAGE! = 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
standard" [ C trl ][ Enter ]
ELSE PRINT "Performance is not standard"
When you run the program with this new line added you will see:
1 6.37363
Performance is not standard
on the screen. What's the new statement all about? It's a Basic if state¬
ment that's used to check the relationship between the variable,
Gas.mileage!, and the constant, 15.5 (our standard value). The first
part of the statement,
IF GAS.MILEAGE! = 15.5
asks the question, "Is Gas.mileage! equal to 15.5?" The way the ques¬
tion is stated, the answer can be only affirmative (true) or negative
(false). There are two more parts of the if statement. The then clause
THEN PRINT "Performance is standard"
tells Basic what to do if the answer is affirmative. The else clause
ELSE PRINT "Performance is not standard"
tells Basic what to do if the answer is negative.
Notice that both the then and else clauses use familiar-looking print
statements. Each statement, without the then or else, could stand by
itself as a Basic statement. It is not necessary to use print statements in
these clauses. Almost any valid Basic statement can be used instead of
a print statement. We'll see some examples shortly.
The else clause is optional. Basic will be satisfied as long as there is
an action to take (in the form of a valid Basic statement) if the relation¬
ship you're checking for holds true; so all that's required is the then
clause. It's a good thing that Basic doesn't require the else clause, be¬
cause you may not care to have anything done if the relationship
doesn't hold true. When you do use an else clause, the action it specifies
must be a valid Basic statement.
The if statement uses the familiar equal sign as a Basic relational
operator. By now you've become used to seeing this symbol used as an
assignment operator in let statements, but don't worry about getting
confused; relational operators are almost always used in the first part
of if statements, and you can be pretty sure that the equal sign is no* an
assignment operator if you see it in that position (it's almost surely an
assignment operator if it's used in a let statement that's part of a then or
else clause).
Equality is not the only relationship that can be tested for in a Basic
if statement. The entire list of Basic relational operators, and the rela¬
tionships they check for, is:
Relational
Operator Relationship
= equal to
) greater than
( less than
< > not equal to
> = greater than or equal to
< = less than or equal to
Most of the relational operators use familiar-looking symbols that
come straight out of a geometry or trigonometry textbook, but the last
three may look unfamiliar; these are made up of combinations of the
other symbols, and the symbol combinations reflect the relationships
they are used to check for. For any of these last three operators, you can
type the symbols in either order (in other words, < > and > < are equiva¬
lent, as are > = and = >, and < = and = <). All of the relational opera¬
tors will get plenty of use as we move along, so you'll have little trouble
getting comfortable with them.
We might as well start using more of them now. In this case, just
knowing whether the car's gas mileage is at standard or not at standard
isn't enough — we'd also like to know if the mileage is above or below
standard; some of the other relational operators will help us get this
information.
Add the following statements to the program:
80 IF GAS.MILEAGE! > 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
above standard"
90 IF GAS.MILEAGE! < 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
below standard"
Notice that here we don't use the optional else clause; you'll see in a
moment why we don't.
When you run the program now,
1 6.37363
Performance is not standard
Performance is above standard
appears on your screen. The gas mileage is not equal to standard be¬
cause it's above standard, and this is duly reported by the program. If
you go back and enter the data for our original tankful into lines 10, 20,
Go for the
MAX
it
//
TM
Panamax
Surge Suppressors
provide the fastest
response time and
highest energy
dissipation available
to assure you the
maximum protection
against over voltage
"Spikes and glitches"
Priced from $59.00
PANAMAX
Toll Free 1-800-472-5555
In California call 415-472-5547
150 Mitchell Boulevard. San Rafael, CA 94903
See us at Seattle C.S.E., Booth #635
Dallas C.S.E., Booth #547 ■ San Francisco, C.S.E., Booth #542.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 89
and 30, and rerun the program, you'll see;
13.06011
Performance is not standard
Performance is below standard
on your screen. Try using the following data in order to get the “Per¬
formance is standard" message to be displayed:
10 LET OLD.ODOMETER! = 0
20 LET NEW. ODOMETER! = 248
30 LET GALLONS. LOADED = 16
Now let's take a closer look at the three if statements we have in our
program:
70 IF GAS.MILEAGE! = 15.5 THEN PRINT “Performance is
standard"
ELSE PRINT "Performance is not standard"
80 IF GAS.MILEAGE! > 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
above standard"
90 IF GAS.MILEAGE! < 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
below standard"
We seem to be checking for three mutually exclusive conditions. If
Gas. mileage! is equal to 15.5, then it's certainly not greater than or less
than 15.5. If it's greater than 15.5, it isn't less, and if it's less than 15.5,
it's not greater! This explains why we get two messages displayed
whenever the mileage is not equal to 15.5
What can we do about the redundant message? One simple thing we
might try is to combine lines 80 and 90 into a single if statement, like
this:
80 IF GAS.MILEAGE! > 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
above standard"
ELSE PRINT "Performance is below standard"
This puts two mutually exclusive conditions into one if statement; the
PROTECT & ORGANIZE
your IBM PC with COMPUTER ESCORT™
The COMPUTER ESCORT is custom designed with
optimum quality and utility offering features such as:
• Secures the IBM PC, via a detachable adapter plate, to the low pro¬
file lower shelf unit which is secured to your table top via a
separate detachable adapter plate.
• Keyboard storage behind locked front panel with optional sliding
keyboard she/f.
• Optional POWER SENTRY provides control of 4 ax. outlets with a
keylock switch. All 4 outlets offer your computer and peripherals
protection with a state-of-the-art transient suppressor and fuse.
• Rear cover hides excess cables stored in the rear chamber and
restricts access to the a.c. outlets when the POWER SENTRY or
other power strip is used.
• Optional top shelf unit secures your monitor directly or via an op¬
tional ball bearing swivel adapter plate.
• Precision heavy duty welded steel construction thruout is enhanced
with textured enamel finish color matched to the IBM PC.
• Designed for easy end user installation saving you both time and
money.
APPLE II OWNERS — SEE THE NEW COOL STACK™ — SENTRY II.
IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines Co.
COMPUTER ESCORT and COOL STACK are trademarks of FMJ INC. Patents Pending.
For more information on these and other fine FMJ products, see your dealer or:
FM), Inc., P.O. Box 5281, Torrance, CA 90510 (213) 325-1900 DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED
new statement takes some action based on whether Gas. mileage! is
greater than 15.5 or less. Now, eliminate line 90 by typing:
delete 90
or just
90
If you are using data that yield a value for Gas.mileage! that's either
above or below 15.5, this combination of lines 80 and 90 will appar¬
ently work fine. But if you use data that yield Gas. mileage! of exactly
15.5, you'll see a mistake in the program. Try it for yourself and see if
you can figure out what the problem is.
Even without the mistake, we still get two messages whenever
Gas. mileage! is not exactly equal to 15.5, so we need to do something
about that. An if statement's then and else clauses can contain (almost)
any sort of Basic statement. One type of Basic statement that can be
contained in a then or else clause is another if statement. That means
that we can combine the two remaining statements (70 and 80) into
one. Try this mouthful:
70 IF GAS.MILEAGE! = 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
standard"
ELSE IF GAS.MILEAGE! > 15.5 THEN PRINT
"Performance is above standard"
ELSE PRINT "Performance is below standard"
Look carefully, and you'll recognize each of the pieces as having been
part of one of the original if statements. All we've done is combine the
parts into a single complex if statement that prints one message if
Gas.mileage! is equal to 15.5, a different message if it's above 15.5, and
a third message if it's below 15.5.
After you make this change, eliminate line 80, just as you got rid of
line 90 before, and then run the program again. This time the results
will be a little different; you'll get either the "Performance is standard"
message or one of the other two messages. You'll no longer see two
messages displayed on your screen when Gas.mileage! isn't exactly
15.5, nor will our mystery bug be present (did you find that bug?).
For all of our effort so far, all we have is a program that checks the
car's mileage on a single tank of gas. What about all that repetitive
power of a computer that we learned about before? How can we get the
program to repeat itself and compute gas mileage for more than a single
tank?
In the April installment of this series, you learned how to use Basic
for loops to make the computer do repetitive calculations. All we
needed to do in our April example was compute values for formulas
that required regularly changing variables, and a for loop worked fine
there because we were able to use the loop counter as a variable in our
let statements. But it's safe to assume that every time we fill the tank
we'll get a different amount of fuel and will have traveled a different
number of miles. How can a for loop help us in this situation?
We can't use the regularly changing value of a loop counter directly,
but we can use a for loop to help us load data from outside sources into
Basic variables. How does that work? Well, Basic can get data from a
number of sources — including your keyboard, disk drives, tape drives
and a modem connected to another computer by telephone. The for
loop can be used just to repeat — a specified number of times — the oper¬
ation of loading data into the program and doing calculations upon
that data.
One way Basic can read data is by using two special program state¬
ments — data statements and read statements. Any number of data and
read statements may be used in a program and, within reason, these
statements enable a Basic program to use any amount of data it needs
in order to operate. Each data statement can contain one or more val¬
ues to be read into Basic variables. Each read statement can read one or
more of the values contained in a data statement and assign them to
Basic variables. The kind of value held in a data statement (numeric or
character) depends on the type of variable into which we read it.
While data statements can contain any number of values, it's a good
90 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Great Lakes offers you add-on
storage and tape back-up at an
unforgettably attractive price
So you’re about to outgrow the storage capacity of your
IBM PC™ or compatible computer? And now you’re biting
your nails over the cost of adding more bytes.
No need! Consider the eminently memorable combination
price of the Great Lakes Superior 10™ hard disk subsystem
and the Great Lakes Quartermaster 23™ tape back-up module.
The Superior JO — $1495
Not only is our $1495 price considerably lower than the
nearest 10-megabyte competitor, but we offer the best
dollar-per-megabyte ratio for the 23mb and 40mb subsystems
as well. The ratios? 10mb at $149 per mb; 23mb at $98 per
mb {retail $2249); 40mb at $70 per mb (retail $2795).
Quartermaster 23 — $995
This optional 23mb tape back-up module is simple to
use and efficient as well. Take, for example, our remarkable
Selecta-File™ feature. This 14-incti tape drive module
allows you to back up and restore data using selective
file-by-fde data transfer (or full streaming). And it masters
all this for just $43 per megabyte.
Complete and ready-to-use
When you buy a Superior hard disk subsystem, every¬
thing is there, ready to operate at high speed. This includes:
high quality fixed hard disk, controller board, software that
runs on DOS 1.1 and 2.0 (CP/M 86™ and other operating sys¬
tems available), host adaptor board, integral power supply,
cables, external custom chassis with additional space for our
tape back-up, and documentation.
Our line is expansive f not expensive
Need even more storage for your IBM PC or compatible?
We offer hard disk subsystems including 65, 110 and I40mb
— all designed for superb quality at the very lowest possible
prices. And we stand behind all our products with our 90-day
warranty. That’s because our quality lives up to our first name.
™ IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
’'‘Superior (ID through 140}. Quartermaster 23 . anti, Sclecta-File are trademarks of
Great Lakes Computer Peripherals. Inc.
™ CP/M 86 is a trademark of Digital Research. Inc.
Available at leading dealers everywhere
COMPUTER PERIPHERALS, INC.
We live up to our first name
2200 W, Higgins Road, Hoffman Estates, IL 60195
1-800-323-6836/1-312-884-7272
I
How you present your message is just
as important as what you present in
today’s competitive environment. That’s
why so many executives, managers,
salespeople, and professionals in every
field, from doctors to attorneys, , .teach¬
ers to architects are relying more and
more on visual presentations to convey
their complex ideas and information.
Now there is an incredibly advanced
software program that will allow you to
create professional quality graphic pre¬
sentations right on your IBM PC or IBM
XT. VCN ExecuVision, from the Busi¬
ness and Professional Division of Pren¬
tice-Hall, brings the power of a com¬
plete graphic arts department to your
computer. In minutes, you can create
exciting presentations that previously
would have taken days, or weeks, for an
art department to complete. Presenta¬
tions that you can run directly on your
computer monitor or with an overhead
projection screen... or convert to hard
copy or slides.
VCN ExecuVision is the ideal tool for
meetings, new business proposals, con¬
sulting symposia, educational /training
programs, marketing plans, manage¬
ment reports, or virtually any other pro¬
fessional presentation.
Automatically plotted charts and
graphs are just the beginning. You’ll
have access to hundreds of pre-draum
images and clip art from special add-on
graphics libraries created specifically to
add visual impact.
• Graphically frame your most impor¬
tant ideas and information with art¬
work from the The Border Collection.
• Use The Initials & Decorative
Design Collection to emphasize key
words or phrases in your text.
• From production lines to executive
suites... there’s an ideal visual to
enhance your report or proposal
data in The Industry &
Business Collection.
• Add the human touch to presenta¬
tions by including representations of
people from Professions: The
Faces and Figures Collection.
• Images from all over the world are at
your fingertips in the International
Symbols & Landmarks Collection.
• Give your data geographic perspec¬
tive and impact with images from
The Maps and Regions Collection.
Each library contains both full screen
images and partial screens (pixes). You
can use the entire image, or, with the
electronic CUT AND PASTE program
function, use just a detail from the full
screen, You can modify or enhance the
images, mix and match them, choose
from 64 possible color combinations...
you can even set the images in motion
across the screen using VCN ExecuVi-
sion’s animation functions.
With the program’s sketching capabi¬
lities, you can create your own visual
images! For your text, choose from 10
different type styles, from bold to italic,
plain to fancy.
Best of all, you don’t have to be an
artist to use VCN ExecuVision success¬
fully. Every function is offered in a series
of easy to follow menus. VCN ExecuVi¬
sion also comes with a tutorial disk and
an extremely easy-to-follow full-color
manual that will take you step by step
through the program.
VCN ExecuVision can immediately be
put to use making all of your informa¬
tion and ideas — and you!— look
sharper, more prepared, and more pro¬
fessional.
For a demonstration of VCN ExecuVi¬
sion, visit your nearest computer soft¬
ware dealer. For more information, call
toll-free 800-624-0023 (NJ residents
call 800-624-0024), or return the cou¬
pon on the facing page.
iiis|9eMii
THE LINE S
HOOK MODE
DOWN WHEN
THIS SLIDE
IS RUN -
ABOVE: just two of the library
slides from which you can
pick images to enhance your
presentation data .
Designed
for IBM
PC and
IBM XT
SIBM-6/f$4"Cll
ExecuVision
Prentice -Hal l, Inc,
200 Old Tbppan Road,
Old T^ppan, N J. 07675
I would like to have more
information on the exciting potential
of VCN ExecuVision sent to the
name and address below.
“You don’t have to be an artist to create
presentation slides like these in minutes !”
Suggested retail price S395. Graphics Libraries individually priced $80-$90.
VCN Execu Vision is a trademark of Visual Communications Network, Inc., Cambridge, MA.
IN SERUICE OPTI
IBM is the registered trademark of International Business Machine Corporation. © 19JS4 Prentice- Hall, Inc
Canadian Inquiries: write to Prentice Hal! Canada, Inc, 1370 Rirchmount Road. Scarborough, Ontario MIP2J7
We Blow Bubbles
Around Your Floppy Disc.
Charlie would have been blown away.
Bubble memory combines the
best features of disk and solid state
memory with extreme reliability.
Unlike a floppy disk, it's entirely solid
state with no moving parts. This
makes it impervious to dust dirt,
fumes, and vibration. And. unlike
normal memory, it doesn't lose data
when the power goes off.
Now you can enjoy all the
advantages of bubble memory
combined with the famous Pure Data
quality and reliability for your
IBM PC or XT.
• PDIB- 1 28 provides 1 28 KBytes in one
slot
• PDIB-384 provides 384 KBytes in one
slot
• Not affected by power failure
• Faster than a floppy disk
• Extremely reliable
• Standard DOS 2.0 disk-type device
• Compatible with all DOS software
• No patching of any system files
• Password option for computer
and/or bubble
• Password cannot be bypassed by
software
• Comprehensive diagnostics and other
utilities
• Fully illustrated installation and
operation manual
• Technical support hot-line
• Guaranteed 48 hour service
• Bubble uses 2 I/O addresses and no
memory space
• Interrupts are supported but not
required
• DMA is supported but not required
• On-board EPROM socket
• Pure Data quality and reliability
• No moving parts
PDIB-128
PDIB-384
Pure Data products are available through.
rjPC^ni 1 335 Valwood Parkway. Suite 1 08
Wllmlil Carrollton. Texas 75006
data systems Telephone (214) 620-8000
P.O. Box 81 51 55. Dallas. Texas 75381
Pure
Data Ltd
950 Denison Street, #17,
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 3K5
a (4 1 6) 475-2424 3(416) 498- 1616
Highland Computer Corporation, Keysoft International,
Computerland, Computer Innovations, Compugroup,
ECOSEA Technologies and others.
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
idea to set them up so that they contain only as much data as needed for
each repetition of the calculation or set of calculations. In our Car Care
program, for example, we'll construct each data statement so it con¬
tains only the odometer reading and the gallons of fuel loaded at each
fill-up.
What does a data statement look like? Let's find out by means of an
example. Enter this statement into your program:
5 DATA 239, 18.3
You'll probably recognize that the first number in this statement (the
first data item, not the line number) is the odometer reading for our first
tankful and the second is the number of gallons of gas we loaded. In the
very first version of this program, remember, we plugged these two
numbers directly into the variables New. odometer! and Gas, loaded!,
in lines 20 and 30 respectively. Notice that the data statement contains
the word "data" followed by the two numbers and that the two num¬
bers are separated by a comma. If there is only one value in a data
statement, no comma is needed; if you put more than two values in the
same data statement, a comma must follow each item except the last.
We've put this first data statement on line 5. It could go anywhere,
but its traditional for data statements to appear at either the beginning
or end of a Basic program. We've chosen the beginning. List the pro¬
gram to verify that, just by using the line number 5, we've inserted the
statement at the top of the program.
We can easily add a second data statement containing the mileage
and fuel data for our second tank of gas:
6 DATA 537, 18.2
We have enough information now in our two data statements to let us
analyze the gas mileage from two tanks of gas, but if we run the pro¬
gram, nothing will have changed; we haven't yet added anything that
tells Basic how to use our data statements, so Basic will just ignore
them.
What we need now are some read statements. Read statements tell
Basic to get values from our data statements and assign those values to
the appropriate variables. Because they have the effect of assigning val¬
ues to variables, we can use read statements to replace the assignment
(let) statements we used earlier.
To make the changes, start by eliminating line 10 (by typing delete
10 or just 20). Then, replace lines 20 and 30 with the following:
20 READ NEW.ODOMETER!
30 READ GALLONS. LOADED!
Each read statement reads as many numbers from data statements
as you specify. Each of the two statements above asks Basic to read one
number and assign it to a variable. Because there are two values on
each data statement, the effect of the two read statements will be to "use
up" only one of the data statements; the second data statement will —
for the time being, anyway — remain unread (we'll see in a moment
how to use this second data statement).
You have to be careful to make sure your program reads all the data
statements you want it to. You also have to be sure to provide as much
data in data statements as you have told your program to read. If you
ask Basic to read more data than you're willing to provide, you'll be
rewarded with an
Out of DATA in XX
error message (XX will be the line number containing the read state¬
ment that found nothing to read).
If you run the Car Care program now, you'll get the same results as
you did before (for the first tankful):
13.06011
Performance is below standard
Run it a second time, and you'll get exactly the same result — Basic will
just keep reading the first data statement over and over again each time
you run the program. How do we get it to read the second one? With a
for loop, that's how.
Installing a for loop in the program will take a little bit of work, but
Graphics Tools
for the IBM PC <•
• TEXT /GRAPHICS.' V, ' V
*• 20 PLOTS .
• 2D INTERACTIYB fi
• 3D PLOTS . V
PASCAL
COBOL
BASIC
rlS-0?
pflll
mm
V ONLY GRAFMATIC
^VE!51YpUAt,LTHe TOOLS
{ ••• > * > 1 * y. Wi / w;**. j -
t) 5^3-0684/- ; \
M&oft Compiler .
Sl35.Ck) / ' ‘
PEN PLOTTER
Graphics Tools
For the IBM PC
COBOL
BASIC
.PENTEXT CONTROL.
.• INTEBPACE'WJTH;^,
MlCROCOMPATIBMES
^ijvW 26901
ttyi';} $135.00
*'■ 1 \{t »
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 95
it's nothing you haven't done already in other programs (we'll just do it
a different way). Reinstate line 10 as follows:
10 FOR FILLUPS % = 1 TO 2
and add line 90:
90 NEXT FILLUPS %
The statement on line 10 tells Basic to start a for loop using Fillups% as
a loop counter; line 90 is the companion next statement that ends the
loop. Notice that our loop counter is an integer variable as a loop
counter; that's because Basic programs run somewhat faster when inte¬
gers are used as loop counters.
When you run the program this time you should see:
13,06011
Performance is below standard
29.50549
Performance is above standard
The data statements have been read for both fill-ups, and for each tank¬
ful the gas mileage has been calculated and rated against our standard.
But there's still something amiss. The second value for Gas. mile¬
age! is ridiculously high (at least for f/tis V-8 family bus),
Whats wrong is that Old. odometer!, which we had previously set
by means of assignment statements, is still at 0. Remember, Basic dears
all variables to 0 whenever a program is started; if we don't do any¬
thing to change its value, Old, odometer] will remain at 0, To fix things
up, we have to assign Old. odometer! the value that New, odometer!
has when we're done with that value for New. odometer!. This is just
what we did earlier in this article when we modified the program to
work for the second tank of gas.
The best place to make this change is just before the n<?:rf statement,
when our program is just about to go back and read the data for the
next fill-up. Add line 80 to make your whole program look like this:
5 DATA 239, 18.3
6 DATA 537, 18.2
10 FOR FILLUP5% — 1 TO 2
20 READ NEW. ODOMETER!
30 READ G ALLO N S , LOADED !
40 LET MILES. DRIVEN! = NEW. ODOMETER! -
OLD. ODOMETER!
50 LET GAS, MILEAGE! - MILES. DRIVEN! /
GALLONS, LOADED!
60 PRINT GAS.MILEAGE!
70 IF GAS. MILEAGE! = 15.5 THEN PRINT "Performance is
standard"
ELSE IF GAS. MILEAGE! > 15.5 THEN PRINT
"Performance is above standard"
ELSE PRINT "Performance is below standard"
80 LET OLD. ODOMETER! = NEW ODOMETER!
90 NEXT FILLUPS%
When you run this version of the program, you'll finally have correct
results— along with the satisfaction of seeing your program begin to do
some really useful work.
Next time well begin to make the program's output a bit neater and
more informative, tidying up some other details while we're at it. Well
also see if we can compute a more meaningful miles-per-gallon average
and look for other ways to have BAStc store our data.
In the meantime, see if you can get this program to work for more
than two fill-ups, and try to get it to work for an older car on which you
have no previous gas usage and mileage data. If you haven't already
done so, be sure to try the program out for your own car
Don't forget tosnue your program; and make a backup copy befor*
you start to change it. See you next time. k
A . ,tn_l pfiopr ’ ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE THAT
- lU LCUH— DEFIES THE LAW OF MUMBO JUMBO.
by EMERALD software in c.
- Auto-Ledger is so easy you can be up and running in less than a day. * Auto-Ledger fs compatible with IBM PC XI PC Jr. Compaq,
* Handles up to 400 accounts and 2,000 transactions per month. Corona PC Kaypro PC, Eagle PC, Sanyo MBOS55 PC
■ Highly adaptable to any small business, Columbia PC, Tava PC,
* Wo commands to learn.
The Small Fortune Auto-Ledger Is a system of 7 modules, each of which performs several activities. The Executive
program Es like the hub of a wheel. From It you can reach any of the other programs (or modules) in the
General Ledger system. The specific functions performed by each of these modules are described below.
MAINTENANCE
EXECUTIVE
Use this module to set up a new ledger, add new
accounts, examine accounts, print a chart of accounts, etc.
This module Is used extensively while brlnglngyojjr
system on-line.
The Audit Module displays all* or selected parts, of the audit
flies, which are permanent records of all transactions
ever made. With It you can produce the equivalent of
general Journal and trial balance print-outs.
REPORTS
This module allows you to design your own reports*
like PA L, balance sheet, etc. and dlsplaythose reports on the
screen, print them, or store them on a disk file.
CLOSING
At the end of each month,
this module posts the
month's profit to the profit
account, and Initializes
the Income and expense
accounts for the next month
For more Information on Auto-Ledger call (206] 282-2100 or write Emerald Software,
Inc., 2416 Warren Ave. N., Seattle, Washington 98109.
To order — include check for S 250.00 plus S3.75 for shipping. To charge on your
Visa or Mastercard call (206) 282-2100,
JOURNAL/
This module allows you to enter transactions (rrvoMng
one account at a time. It keeps these transaction entries
in a journal entry file until they are posted to the
general ledger
JOURNAL/ 2
Like Journal/! , JoumaJ/2 constructs a batch of
transaction entries. Involving two accounts with every
entry you can't pul the ledger out of balance using
this module. Ordinary transactions are entered efficiently
with this module.
POSTING
This program takes entries from the Journal/ 1 and
Journal/2 entry files and posts them to the general ledger.
This Is the only way that the ledger Itself Is updated,
When transactions are posted, a complete record of what
was done Is also written to the audit file automatically,
Auto-Led eer
96 June 1984 Soflalk for the IBM Personal Computer
HOW TO TURN IBM INTO ABC.
Introducing the Plume/Waite Computer Series.
The Waite Group, the people who wrote the access each and every one of your machine's
book on computer books, have done it again. features.
They've produced a remarkable series on the • BLUEBOOK OF ASSEMBLY ROUTINES
world's most popular personal computers, the for the IBM ® PC and XT — the book where
IBM® PC and IBM® XT you'll find a variety of pre-tested, debugged
The complete Pluixie/Waite library for the routines you can use with your own BASIC,
IBM PC and XT consists of five detailed vol- PASCAL, or ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE pro-
umes written for everyone from the computer grams — routines that will improve your soft-
beginner to the professional programmer. ware's performance and save you time.
• DOS Primer for the IBM® PC and XT — So if you'd like to get the most out of your
the first book anyone with an IBM PC and XT computer, get the Plume/Waite Computer
should buy. It gets you started managing Series. Whatever your level, it'll make learning
resources and controlling & running pro- your IBM PC and IBM XT as easy as ABC.
grams — so you can get the most out of your
computer.
• BASIC Primer for the IBM® PC and XT —
the guide for BASIC, the world's most popular
computer language. It offers a wide variety of
at-the-keyboard examples, along with projects
that draw on the versatile graphic and sound
capabilities of the PC and XT.
• PASCAL Primer for the IBM® PC ^ for
those ready to take the next step in computer
science. This general purpose language can be
used by both the novice and the programmer
who wants to develop commercial software.
• ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE Primer for the
IBM® PC and XT — the book that teaches the
programmer the innermost secrets of the IBM
PC and XT. Because ASSEMBLY is the most
powerful language available, you'll be able to
New Aiherlcan Library, P.O. Box 999
Bergenfield, N ;J. 07621
Please send me;
_ Dos Primer Z5494 ($14.95); _ Basic Primer Z5495
($16.95); _ Pascal Primer Z5496 ($17.95); Assembly
Language Primer Z5497 ($21.95); _ Bluebook of Assembly
Routines Z5498 ($19.95). Add $1.50 postage and handling per
order. I enclose _ _ _ check, _ money order (no COD's or cash),
or charge _ Visa, - Master Card.
Signatiijte
AIlovv a minimum of 4-6 weeks for delivery. This
offer, prices arid numbers are subject to change
without notice. Offer expires December 31, 1984.
The Public Library
By Nelson Ford
Although there are thousands of widely
known programs in the public domain,
these represent only the tip of an iceberg; there
are many more potential PD gems that a lot of
people don't know about — and may never
know about. Before we get to the PD picks for
this month, let's take a moment to talk about
that unseen part of the iceberg.
One reason some people don't contribute
their programs to the public domain is that
they don't know how to go about it; they don't
know how to distribute their programs to
others.
If you're looking for a way to make your
PD program available to other PC users, con¬
sider contacting your local user group; they
will more than likely be happy to swap their
own PD software with you. Not only do you
help out your fellow users by doing this, you
also receive software in return.
If you're feeling really altruistic and you
have a modem, you might upload your pro¬
gram to a bulletin board and let others
download it. You won't get any software in re¬
turn this way, but you may receive instant
fame. Indirectly, you'll still get software in re¬
turn, because your contribution will inspire
others to share their programs.
If you think your program is too good to
give away, but you don't have the time,
money, or ability to put it on the market, you
have a couple of options. One is to write an
article about the program— or about some es¬
pecially ingenious aspect of it. Many program¬
mers have the notion that the people who write
for computer publications dwell on some other
plane of existence. In truth, anyone with a
good idea and some ability to put words on
paper can submit an article to a magazine.
Send a letter to the editor describing what you
have in mind and see what happens.
If you want to try for bigger bucks, con¬
sider the quasi-PD route: You allow users to
copy and distribute your program but ask
them to send you some specified amount of
money if they do use it. If you decide on this
approach, be prepared to put more effort into
perfecting and documenting your software
than you'd need to if you simply gave your
program away. And although this approach
may offset some of your investment in the pro¬
gram, don't expect to strike it rich.
The original QPD program was Andrew
Fluegelman's . PC-Talk. For $25 (now $35),
Fluegelman offered PC users a very good com¬
munications program, complete with source
code and extensive documentation.
Unfortunately, the QPD approach is in
danger. Some greedy souls spend a few days
writing a trivial piece of code and then
(figuring it never hurts to try) request payment
from anyone who uses it. The problem is that
as people catch on to this kind of ruse, they
become less likely to compensate anyone who
has written a QPD program. So if you're
thinking of putting a program into the quasi¬
public domain, do yourself and your fellow
programmers a favor and make sure your pro¬
gram is worth what you ask for it.
Let's move on now to the PD picks for June.
HC.com:
A hex-to-binary conversion program
by Marty Smith
Written in assembler, HC converts machine
language programs from their normal binary-
encoded format to hexadecimal. In hex for¬
mat, the files can be transmitted easily over the
phone by any communications program; the
special protocols required for binary files are
not necessary. HC also accomplishes the recon¬
version of the hex file to binary format for the
benefit of the person on the receiving end of the
transmission.
This isn't the first program written to con¬
vert files from binary to hex and back again.
Several people have written Basic programs to
accomplish this conversion. One popular early
one was written by Jeff Garbers, Unfortu¬
nately, a conversion program written in Basic
might take half an hour or more to convert a
good-size file. Because HC is written in assem¬
bler, it can translate even large files in a few
seconds.
The XModem communications protocol,
which allows you to transmit com and exe files
without converting them to and from hex, is
beginning to gain wider acceptance. Many pri¬
vate bulletin boards already support XMo¬
dem, and, by the time you read this,
CompuServe should also have begun support¬
ing it. When everybody is using XModem ex¬
clusively, we'll no longer need HC; until then,
it's essential
LoRes:
Aids for generating sixteen-color graphics
by Marty Smith
The technique for creating sixteen-color graph¬
ics with 160-by-100 resolution on the PC has
been known since 1982, but LoRes is the first
good implementation of the technique to be¬
come generally available. Smith provides a se¬
ries of files containing technical information,
machine code, guidelines, and samples for pro¬
gramming in lo-res sixteen-color graphics.
Even if you do not program, the demo (written
in assembler) is worth seeing.
Other PD Picks
Several programs to replace the DOS type
command have appeared recently. The pri-
98 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Tim Egan
More For Your Micro
Qubie' offers a few select products at low prices,
with service and support not available elsewhere.
i. Digital Signal
Processing Modems
The Qubie' modems provide a
high Jevel of performance and quality
at a price unmatched by competing
modems. This is made possible by four
microprocessors which measure the
tones being transmitted digitally,
eliminating the need for expensive
analog filtering devices Both modems
are Beil 21 2 A compatible, and are
capable of transmitting and receiving
at 300 and 1200 baud. These auto-dial
and auto-answer modems recognize
the Hayes software commands. If you
already are using a software package
written for Hayes modems, like
CROSSTALK or even Hayes' SMART-
COM, you can use it on
the OubJe' modems
and XT*
includes, rnternal modem, modular
phone cable, card edge guide, instruc¬
tion manual, and the highly rated P0-
TALK III communications software Its
low profile design allows it to fit injust
one slot, even on an XT. For just 520
we can add an external serial port
connector. This lets you use the serial
port circuitry on the modem card to
address external serial devices when
you are not using your modem
PC2T2A/1200
The 1I2A
12001
Standalone
Modem*
The most economical way to get
high speed data communications for
any personal computer with a serial
port. It supports at! Hayes commands
and can use any Hayes compatible soft¬
ware package. It comes standard with
its own cabie to connect it to your
computer, a modular phone cable,
and manual. S329.
New from
nest ARCH INC.
2* More Than Just
Graphics on a
Monochrome
Monitor
Mow you can
get graphics on an
IBM PC monochrome monitor along
with parallel port, serial port, and bat¬
tery powered dockfcalendar It is the
ideal solution for those who wish to
do graphics using Lotus l-2-3>,The
720X348 Hercules compatible resolu¬
tion of the MonoGraphPlus eliminates
the eyestrain caused by the IBM
graphics adapter with its tower
640x20 0 resolution.
Qubie'
Bracket
The Acid Test. If Within 30
days of purchase you are not completely
satisfied wrth our products you may
return them for a complete refund in¬
cluding freight to ship it back. Each
product t$ warranted for one year parts
and labor. Should service be required
during this period our inhouse service
department will fix the problem within
48 hours or we replace the item.
Graphics rsjust the beginning
We have added some popular features
from the AS1 family of multifunction
boards. Standard features include a
parallel printer port, and a battery
powered dock/calendar for automatic
loading of the time and date You can
even order an optionai serial port for a
serial printer, plotter mouse, or modem
All functions are T0G% IBM compatible,
And of course there is a one year factory
warranty from AST Research and the
Qubie' Acid Test backing it ail up
MonoGraphPlus $449, Optional serial
port, $35.
3. 30 Minutes of
Standby Power
with Surge and EMI
Protection Tool
Have you ever had the misfortune
to have the power faif or the fights
blink right rn the middle of doing
something reaily important? You could
have missed out on the frustration of
losing all that work if your micro had
a Qubie' SB2G0 Standby Power Supply
it is ready on just 1 1 1 00th of a second
notice to run your PC for up to 30
minutes after a power failure- it will
also go into action should the power
dip below the minimum required fa
'‘brown-out"). An audible alarm warns
you to save your work to a disk and
shutdown in an orderly manner. The
SB2QQ also provides filtering of Elec¬
tromagnetic Interference [EMI), and
surge protection which can reek havoc
on your PCs internals or your data
without you even noticing SB 200 200
watt standby power, $329.
I
Order Today!
.All prices include UPS surface freight and
If insurance. Add $5 for two day air on
I modems and AST, SIS on S8200. For
fastest delivery send certified check or
J credit card. Personal checks take IS days
to clear. Calif, residents add 6% sales tax.
Corporations & Institutions call for pur-
jn chase order details,
(800)821-4479 K
Toll Free outside California >1^
I
(805) 987-9741
Inside California
I
'QUBIE'
£ 4809 Ca lie Alto
I Camarillo, Ca. 93010
Tempo House, 15 Falcon Road
jj London 5W1I 2PH, United Kingdom
SB20O
Standby Power Supply
Copyright Qutjre' i?S4
HQM. PC Jnd XT flfr reguwed iwdcniiiflti ol IBM Carp
ACT PS i rriJiittfHT TfJdtmafk Ol AST Rtieirch
See
Software.
Dick is a programmer. Dick is bored.
Harried. Overworked. Dick struggles
with tedious
trace
chores
and i
debugging
routines. Non¬
existent documen¬
tation. Hidden bugs. Dick
is four months behind schedule
as a result. And customers are
angry when bugs slip through. They
yell and make Dick upset. They
make Dick’s boss upset.
Nobody is veiy happy.
Jane is a happy programmer. She
uses ANIMATORS It’s a unique VISUAL
PROGRAMMING'" aid for MICRO FOCUS"
COBOL: It runs on Jane’s friendly micro¬
computer. It makes child’s play of test and
debugging tasks.
With ANIMATOR Jane sees a picture
of the program explaining itself. In live
action. In real time. In COBOL source
code. As ANIMATOR displays the program
listing, the cursor tracks the exact exe¬
cution path. Including subroutine branches.
See
Software
Run.
Dick dreams of a different sort of
life. Where he’s a programmer hero.
Entertained by his work. Admired for
his skill. Rewarded for his performance.
Now his dreams can come true.
The view is precise. Compact. Unambiguous.
Jane can have the program run fast.
Or slow. Or stop it. All at the touch of
a key. This makes it easy to spot problems.
Insert fixes. Set breakpoints. Examine
details. Instantly. Because of ANIMATOR’S
sophisticated debugging commands.
ANIMATOR gives Jane more freedom
to innovate too. Her programs are best
sellers. They’re delivered on time. With no
hidden bugs. Jane’s boss likes this about
Jane. Because he doesn’t like customers to
yell at him.
Run,
Software,
Run!
This software vendor just went
public. Because he doubled productivity.
Eliminated bugs. Cut costs. Compressed
development cycles. Produced terrific
applications. Beat the competition to the
market. And customers don’t yell at him
anymore. All thanks to ANIMATOR.
See ANIMATOR now.
Let ANIMATOR help speed your
applications to market. ANIMATOR makes
COBOL programs easy to comprehend.
Fun to develop. A snap to maintain. With¬
out the drudgery, you’ll be happier.
You’ll do better work. In record time. This
will make you richer. Faster. And your
customers will stand up and cheer.
Write or call for a demo. Or detailed
information. Right now.
MICRO FOCUS
2465 East Bayshore Road, Suite 400
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(415) 856-4161
'£i 1984 Micro Focus. Ltd, Alt Rights Reserved
LEVEL II COBOL, ANIMATOR, VISUAL PfLOG H AM M MG < MICRO FOCUS Mid th®
M iCRO FOCUS Logo ul Mirra Fben* Lid
Tb: Micro Focus
2465 E. Bayshore Rd., Suite 400
Palo Alto, CA 94303
I’d like more information
ST/6
Name.
. Title.
Company,
Addre&s_
Phone..
City.
. State,
WITH NIGHTMISSION
You deserve the best. You've earned it. Now reward yourself with a session of Night Mission PINBALL,
the most realistic and challenging arcade simulation ever conceived! ■ Stunning graphics and dazzling
sound effects put Night Mission PINBALL in a class by itself. Game features: multi
/• Hfti uTinT : iF ball and multi-player capabilities, ten different professionally designed levels of play,
Lw1" * l . and an editor that lets you create your own custom modes. ■ So take a break with
1 I ' q * g ! | Night Mission PINBALL from SubLOGIC. Winner of Electronic Games magazine's
/[’ ; 1983 Arcade Award for Best Computer Audio/Visual Effects-
oalsiUOGIC
or write or call for more information. For direct orders please add $1 .50 for
shipping and specify UPS or first class mail delivery. Illinois residents add 5%
sales tax. American Express, Diner's Club, MasterCard, and Visa accepted.
Corporation
713 Edgebrook Drive
Champaign IL61820
(217) 359-8462 Telex: 206995
Order Line: 800/637-4983
1
I-ElsEi
_ £ _ ,
_ J_ (
mss
*
jF’n j $
Nh
Mil
mary feature of these programs is their ability
to page backward and forward through a file a
screen at a time. Using type , you can only read
straight through a file.
List.com, by Vernon Buerg, allows you to
page up or down a screen at a time or to page
up half a screen at a time. With half-screen
paging, it's easier to read a file, because you
can still see what you were just reading before
you went to the next page. However, the half¬
page scroll works only when you're paging up,
so it's an advantage to those who like to start at
the end and read toward the front. Maybe
Buerg will give us another release with half¬
page scrolling in both directions. The assem¬
bler source code is not provided.
List also allows the printer to be toggled on
and off. If you see part of a file that you want
to print, toggle the printer on for that part; you
don't have to print out the whole file. List will
not start printing in the middle of a screen, and
it won't let you scroll the screen a line at a time;
so you can't print exactly what you want, but
you're still better off than you'd be if you had
to print an entire file to get just a couple of
screens.
5T.com (Super Typer), by Charles
Franklin, allows only full-screen paging; and
Franklin requests $5 if you use his program.
Super Type/ s star attraction is that it will
translate a WordStar document file into
straight text as it displays the file. It does not
create a new, translated file, although with
DOS 2's redirection feature, you might get it to
do so. ST uses "sixty-four circular buffers" to
store the file's screen pages. This means that
with very large files you can't page from the
end of the file all the way back to the begin¬
ning.
Re-View, by Vincent Bly, allows you to
page back only three screens from the most
current screen and doesn't work with the
monochrome monitor. Bly requests $15 for his
program.
Of the three, List has the most useful fea¬
tures and the lowest price (free). The odd thing
about Bly's charging $15 for Re-View is that he
includes with it several other programs for
which he requests nothing. One of the pro¬
grams included is Bricks, a nice implementa¬
tion of the familiar "breakout" game.
DOS Shell Programs
DOS shell programs are designed to facilitate
file-handling at the DOS command level. They
allow you to do such things as page through a
directory; sort the directory by filename, date,
or size; and execute DOS commands or other
programs, returning to the shell when done.
Cat.com is a quasi-PD program by Steve
O'Kane and Ron Simmons. When invoked, it
displays the default drive's directory and lets
you scroll by line or screen. Following each
filename is a twenty-five-character space
where you can enter commands that will act
upon the file in question.
The beauty of Cat.com is that it lets you
enter commands for more than one file and ex¬
ecutes them automatically one after the other.
For example, you can enter erase for one file
and type for another. Then you can press con¬
trol-enter, and Cat.com will exit to DOS and
carry out both the commands you just issued.
When those commands have been executed,
you'll see the DOS prompt with a large block
cursor; at this point, you can press enter to re¬
turn to Cat.com, remain in DOS, or run an¬
other program. Cat.com stays in memory,
waiting for you to press enter at the DOS
prompt.
Cat.com has some shortcuts built in. If you
want to enter the same command on two suc¬
cessive directory lines, just enter the command
on the first line and type an equal sign on the
second; the equal sign copies the previous
command directly into the current line. Enter¬
ing /n for a file causes that file to be executed
(that is, the program to be run). Entering a / in
a command causes the current filename to be
inserted into the command at the point of the
slash. So, for example, copy a: filename b: can
be abbreviated to copy / b:.
Cat.com allows you to toggle files between
the hidden and visible modes and has several
other features. It appears to work with most
other software, including ProKey , Scrollk,
CgClock , WordStar, and 1-2-3. The program
does have some bugs in it (calls to the authors
have not been answered), but it's worth having
anyway.
Util.com, from Mutant Software, is an¬
other shell program; Mutant asks $10 if you
like it. Util has some of the same features as
Cat (it lets you display a sorted directory, for
example, and use the directory to specify a
batch of DOS commands), but each program
has some features that the other lacks, as you
will see.
One advantage that Util offers is the ability
to move easily through subdirectories. Unlike
Cat, Util displays the names of subdirectories.
To display the files in a subdirectory, you posi¬
tion the cursor on the subdirectory name and
press enter. To go back to the root directory,
press L.
Util also allows you to send the contents of
one screen to a second monitor, if you have
both a monochrome and graphics monitor,
and to switch from one monitor to another. It
allows you to send a file to the printer, or you
can mark a file so that only specified lines
are sent.
You can use Util to redefine keys using de¬
vice — ansi.sys in a Config.sys file. Util also
offers the ability to search for data in a text file;
this feature can be nearly duplicated with DOS
2's find program, but Util’s search capability is
more flexible.
Other Programs
Undo, bas, by Rich Schinnell, allows you to ac¬
cess files that you've saved via Backup.
Lu.com, by T. Jennings, chains several files
into one and lets you separate them later. This
is handy for archiving a set of files that you
want to keep together. Lu does not compress
the files.
DDate.com, by Hal Sampson, makes en¬
tering the date on bootup easier for the user
who doesn't have a clock board.
GCopy & GDel, by Gordon Waite, allows
batch copying and batch deletion of files.
123Prep.exe, by Jon Sims, converts a file
with fixed-length records into the 1-2-3 pm file
format. Great for files downloaded from a
mainframe.
What's Your Favorite?
If you have some favorite PD programs, drop
me a line. If you've written a program that you
think the world would be interested in, send
me a copy on disk. I'd also like to hear from
individuals or groups who collect, swap, or
sell PD software. Any disk of PD software sent
to me will be returned with new PD software
on it. Send letters and disks to
Nelson Ford
Box 61565
Houston, TX 77208 ▲
SURE
SOFTWARE
PROTECTION
take on
the
nibble
copiers!
They can’t beat it!
Designed by software developers, for
software developers . . . and guaranteed.
We guarantee our systems for one
year against all past, present and
future nibble copiers.
Here is effective software protection
for the IBM, PC, XT, PCjr and
compatibles. It can be quickly and
easily added to your existing programs
so they can’t be copied by any copy
utility. All environments are supported,
which include: DOS, BASIC (compiled
and interpretive), Pascal, Fortran,
P-System, dBASE II, APL (by STSC),
Lattice C, C86, Assembler, and
stand-a-lone.
ONE-TIME FEE FOR MULTIPLE USE.
ASK ABOUT OUR DEMO PROGRAM.
IXYSS)
312/377-5151
MICRO-SOFTWARE
DEVELOPERS, INC.
214% WEST MAIN STREET
ST. CHARLES, IL60174
Softalkfor the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 103
The Patch Patch
Silence Those Drives
Does this sound familiar? It's 3 a.m. and you
have just completed the world's most compre- B9
hensive sock cataloguer (like everyone else H
you think small first and then work your way H
up). Of course this revolutionary piece of soft¬
ware is being developed on your 512K RAM fjl - - ~
drive (memory's cheap, right?). Time now to jj|j
save this masterpiece on a mundane yet reli¬
able floppy before the power company decides @ f
to send your program to that big bit bucket in ( %
the sky. Out comes the pillow, which snugly V3n _ ^
smothers the system unit's disk drives. You
carefully tiptoe upstairs to make sure the bed- w f V
room doors are firmly shut. You close the base- ^ ^ j ||
ment door and stuff a towel in the crevice ' vi
under the door. At last you're ready! y yr"\|jj f u
COPY* . * A:
As you press the enter key, you say a little prayer that this time you'll
only wake up the kids — last time, the neighbor's doberman wanted a
little piece of your throat.
Come on, you're probably saying, the Tandon drives on IBM PCs
aren't that loud. Well, personally, I use them as ah EOJ (End-of-Job)
alarm. I fire up my super-duper general all-purpose batch file (in the
RAM drive, of course) and go watch my favorite TV show (I have a
slow compiler). The last statement in the batch file copies my source Hie
to drive A. When the job is finished, no matter where I may be in the
house. . . . Need I say more?
It seems that most of the bump and grind on these marvels of tech¬
nology is caused by vibration that occurs when the arm steps to a new
location. This stepping (or the rate thereof) is controlled by an entry in
something called the Diskette Parameter Table. There's a pointer at
0000:0078 to 0000:007B that locates this table in memory. Thus, if you
want to modify this table for whatever reason, you can construct your
own table and change these pointer values. (In fact, every new release
of DOS has done this.) Anyway, the first byte of this table contains
what is known as a step rate. In DOS 1.1, this was set to eight microsec¬
onds; it was decreased to six microseconds in DOS 2.0. It turns out,
however, that four microseconds gives the best result. I therefore sub¬
mit the following patch, which describes how you go about modifying
this parameter. Please pay careful attention.
Note: This patch is valid for DOS 2.0 and Tandon double-density
drives only! I'm too lazy to figure it out for DOS 1.1.
In DOS 2.0, the parameter table is stored on the boot record of the
system disk. The first patch modifies the appropriate byte in this boot
record. For some reason, however, this table is only used by DOS on a
warm boot. On a cold boot, Ibmbio.com constructs its own parameter
table in memory. Thus the second patch modifies Ibmbio.com. To in¬
sert this patch, make a copy of your system disk and put it in drive A.
From the DOS prompt enter :
A) DEBUG
to which Debug returns with its hyphen prompt. Then type:
0,1 Mr ^
/ t
‘ A
\>^( W jr
\
P\L
ws,
L 0 0 0 10
and hit return. Type :
E 21
Debug responds:
xxxx:0021 DF.
Type EF, hit return, and then type:
E1FC6
Debug replies:
xxxx:lFC6 DF.
Type EF again, hit return, then type:
W 0 0 0 10
Finally, type Q to quit Debug.
The only unfortunate thing about all this, of course, is that you can
never again use your Tandon drives as an alarm.
Fulvio Castelli, Montreal, Canada
ProKey and Socha
I especially enjoy John Socha's toolbox articles; they're not only use¬
ful but instructive as well. The way the data statements are laid out is
extremely convenient; the format Socha uses — with tabs between data
items — makes the numbers easy to read and enter.
I have found, however, that an even easier way to enter these data
statements is to let ProKey insert the commas and tabs. What follows is
a ProKey routine I call Socha. pro. It works with ProKey version 3.0.
Some slight alteration (changing <begdef> and (enddef) to <Alt=>
and < Alt-) respectively) will allow it to work with previous versions of
ProKey.
< begdef )< altz ) data < tab )<vfld> . . .
< vfld),<tab> <vfld> . . . < vfld>,< tab) < vfld) . . .
< vfld),<tab> < vfld) . . . < vfld), <tab> < vfld) < vfld), < tab) < vfld) . .
<vfld>, < tab) < vfld) . . . < vfld), < tab) < vfld)
. . .<vfld>< enter) (enddef)
With this routine, entering the data statements is simply a matter of
104 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Kevin McKeon
EASY to USE “VISUAL SHELL” for DOS
the
tiTbe Wonder”
*"» *■ FUNCTIONAL FEATURES
• CURSOR DRIVEN Command System
• MULTIPLE FILE Operations
• UNIQUE “1 Line” BATCH COMMAND
• DISPLAYS System STATISTICS or FILE DATES
• EASY SCANNING of ^ny DIRECTORY
• “ALPHA SEARCH” File Location
• SORT/DISPLAY Files by NAME, EXTension, SIZE or
DATE
• AUTOMATIC REDISPLAY after command execution
• DISPLAYS DOS 2.00 TREE FILE Directories
• FAST, EASY Access to Sub-Directories
• USER DEFINEABLE COMMAND MENU Options
• USER DEFINEABLE “INSTALL” Options
• WILD CARD DIRECTORY Feature
• SCREEN SAVER Feature
• HELP SYSTEM for DOS Commands
• FAST OPERATION — Written in Assembly Language
• COMPATIBLE with the COMPAQ, CORONA,
COLUMBIA, TOSHIBA . . .
REQUIRES DOS 1.10, 2.00 or 2.10, 64K
(96K recommended), and 1 disk drive. by
DIRECTORY COMMAND SYSTEM
for the IBM PC & XT
for NEW and
EXPERIENCED USERS
-NEW-
MORE POWERFUL
VERSION 2.00
CUSTOMIZE YOUR SYSTEM!
\
COMMAND EXECUTION
and FILE MANAGEMENT
MADE EASY!
A MUST
FOR HARD DISK SYSTEMS
Licensed by more Hard Disk Manufacturers
than any other “Visual Shell ”
1 dir replaces the DOS prompt with an
interactive command system that eliminates tjie
need to type commands and filenames on the
command line. File loading and program
execution are implemented by positioning 1 dlr’s
FILE and COMMAND CURSORS and pressing the
<ENTER> key. 1 dir deals with DOS for you,
enabling you to concentrate on your applications.
Here’s what the critics say . . .
PC Tech Journal - 11/83
“1 dir performs flawlessly . . .”
Software Retailing Magazine - 9/83
. . a clever solution to using PC DOS without
having to remember all the commands.” *
Softalk for the PC - 9/83
“Especially useful to initiates of the computer
community . . . Painless”
Peter Norton - 1 0/83
“An attractive product, well engineered and the
BEST I’ve seen so far.”
Bourbaki Inc
Suggested Retail
*95.00
+ $3.50 Shipping
P.O. Box 2867, Boise, ID 8370 I , ( 208 ) 34 2-5849
;AND WAIT FOR ANY KEY
setting Basic's automatic numbering feature to the beginning line num¬
ber, pressing alt-Z, and then entering each number from the numeric
pad, followed by a tap of the return or enter key. For each new line,
merely press alt-Z again. If you find it easier to hit another key instead
of alt-Z, just substitute the desired key in your ProKey definition.
William M. Mertens, State College, PA
On Whereis.com
When you use John Socha's program Whereis.com (Softalk, January
1984) on an XT or any other PC-compatible micro with a fixed disk, the
screen scrolls too rapidly to let you read an extensive file listing. As an
alternative to using control— num lock, I've written some lines of code
that can be added to Whereis.com. This code stops the screen after
twenty-three lines have printed; scrolling resumes when you press any
key.
After the statement DATA_SEG SEGMENT PUBLIC add the fol¬
lowing two lines:
LINE _ CTR DB 0
MESSAGE DB TRESS ANY KEY WHEN READY'0AH,0DH/$'
After the statement CALL SEND _ CRLF in the procedure
WRITE_JvIAT CHED _ NAME, add:
INC
LINE _ CTR
;INC LINE COUNTER
MOV
AL/23
;TEST FOR 23 LINES PRINTED
CMP
ALPINE _ CTR
JNE
WRITE _ EXIT
;NO— NORMAL EXIT
MOV
AL,0
;23 PRINTED, SO SEND
MOV
LINE_CTR,AL
;MESSAGE
MOV
DX, OFFSET CGROUPrMESSAGE
MOV
AH, 9
INT
21H
MOV AH, 7
INT 21H
WRITE _ EXIT :
Then reassemble, link, and convert to a com file. This makes the screen
easier to read when you list a large number of files.
John Tuccio, Westport, CT
Typefaces
I use my PC with Typefaces by Alpha Software to prepare my lecture
notes. I recently purchased Microsoft's Word and found that default
Word files don't run with Typefaces. After some experimentation I
found that the following procedure will produce Word files that work
with Typefaces, and I'm including it for anyone interested in using this
combination of software tools.
Prepare the document with Word and use the format division com¬
mand (or prepare an appropriate style sheet) to set the document's mar¬
gins to top = 0, bottom = 0, left = 0, right = 3.
Use the print file command to create a disk file of the document with
the margins specified in the format division command.
Use Edlin to get rid of any control characters that Word places in line
1 of the disk file. Be sure that dot commands intended for Typefaces are
at the left margin in this file. Copy this modified disk file to a Typefaces
data disk and run Typefaces in the usual manner.
I use an Epson MX-80 with Graftrax-Plus and print my file from
Word to disk with the Epson MXG option in Word. Users with other
printers may need to use an option appropriate for their particular
printers. The important thing seems to be to keep the top, bottom, and
left margins set to 0 and to eliminate the control characters (if any) in
the first line.
Dr. Delo E. Mook, Hanover, NH ▲
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
Save thousands of dollars! Save hundreds of hours!
by using our assembly language sub-systems
FABS AUTOSO RT
fast B-tree keyed access sub-system
Rapid access and maintenance of large files with fixed-
length records
Versions available for CP/M-80, MP/M-II, CP/M-86,
MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Microsoft BASIC(s), COBOL, FOR¬
TRAN, PASCAL, PL/I, CBASIC, CB80, CBASIC86, CB86.
FABS directs all Access, insert, and Delete file opera¬
tions
Key length may be greater than 50 bytes, and six key
files open simultaneously
Multiple primary key and multi-level key plus duplicate
and variable-length keys are supported
Random search time approximately 1 second, sequential
step 1/4 sec.
Deleted records are automatically reclaimed by subse¬
quent insert operations
Key files never need to be re-sorted: excellent error
handling
Generic search returns the first occurrence of partial
key; search-next provides sequential read
Loads resident with DOS, occupying less than 15k bytes
Easy to incorporate into existing file-intensive applica¬
tions
Extensive commands: Create, Open, Close key file,
Search (first, last, next, previous, generic), Insert, Delete,
Replace key, Max Length, Open Deletes, # of Records,
# of Keys
high speed Sort/Merge/Select sub-system
Optimized for very large files; stand-alone or callable
subroutine; diskettes may be changed during operation
Versions available for CP/M-80, MP/M-II, CP/M-86 and
MS-DOS, PC-DOS running Microsoft BASIC(s), FOR¬
TRAN, PASCAL, CBASIC, CB80, CBASIC86, CB86.
Record size may exceed 5000 bytes, and file length is
unlimited
Sorts based on up to 10 fixed or variable length keys,
each ascending/descending
Key fields may be string, integer, single or double pre¬
cision numeric
Output files may consist of full records, key with record
pointer, and record pointer only
Select for retain/delete based on up to 4 keys, AND, OR,
> < , =, conditions
Single or multi-user; sorted files may be merged
Fast . . , 4000 records of 128 bytes sorted to give key
and pointer file is 170 seconds
Boot straps itself into and out of memory claiming/
restoring memory automatically
Up to 9 different Sort/Merge/Select Modes of operation;
parameters defined at run-time or read from a file
Interactive parameter set-up program is supplied; files
may be on disk drives A-Z
Retail Price $150 Each + Shipping (OEM Dealer Discounts)
COMPUTER CONTROL SYSTEMS, INC., 298 21st Terrace S.E., Largo, FL (813) 586-1886
106 ]une 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Penpad 320 can do what no graphics tablet in
the world can do; it can read your writing and enter it
into your PC as if you had used a keyboard. It can
also turn freehand charts and graphs into their precise
geometric counterparts or it can display your graphics
exactly as drawn. Touch the command box to change
colors. Touch the drawing and it’s instantly painted.
Print labels or descriptions where you want. You
control the size and color, upper or lower case.
Making presentation graphics or slides with a
Penpad is easier and faster than any other means
available.
The pen is the cursor. It’s also a mouse, a
paintbrush, a touch command tool, and of course,
a pen. Even managers find that editing text is a lot
faster with a Penpad than with a keyboard. And,
anyone using software like Lotus 1-2-3™ will be
surprised at how easy it is to set up and fill out
spreadsheets, '‘mouse” through them, and correct
mistakes or write in whole columns of numbers in a
fraction of the time it would take with a keyboard and
a mouse. Touch a command box labeled in plain
English to invoke functions or complex combinations
of keystrokes.
No productivity improvement tool, with the
exception of the personal computer itself, comes even
close to offering you the power or ease of a Penpad.
Most people find it hard to believe that Penpad can
do all this until they’ve tried it.
Ask your IBM PC or COMPAQ dealer to order
the Penpad for you.
Pencept, Inc., 39 Green Street, Waltham, MA
02154. Telephone: 617/893-6390.
Authorized Dealerships available.
Is the Penpad™ 320
the greatest graphics
tablet in the world?
Or, is it the greatest
keyboard and mouse?
Or, is it a lot more?
Suggested retail price $995-00.
Draw your own conclusions.
-2-3' is a irademark of Lotus Development Corporation.
FROM BEGIN TO END
Our review of Turbo Pascal in the March in¬
stallment of this column has generated
more response than any other column to
date (of course, that's not saying much,
since most of you appear to prefer writing programs over writing let¬
ters)* Therefore, a follow-up column seems in order, to correct some of
the data in that column and to provide some additional information.
For starters, here's a letter we received from Harvey L. Lynch (Sun¬
nyvale, CA) — and some comments on his remarks.
I recertf/y acquired the Turbo Pascal compiler, and 1 like the product
very much— especially the interactive user interface for debugging at
both compile and execution stages. The compilation speed is indeed
remarkable, on a par with a DEC VAX 11/780 and 10 percent of an
IBM 3081 -K in terms of CPU time per line of code .
I take issue , however, with the reviewers' opinion that Turbo is
much faster in execution than IBM Pascal. It has been my experience
using both the /EfM and Turbo compilers that if both are asked to do
comparable jobs, Turbo is almost invariably slower in execution speed
than IBM. Notwithstanding the delicacy of benchmark tests (duly
noted by the reviewers ), one must at least make equivalent compari¬
sons.
The prime sieve program , presumably the standard program
published in many places, /is fed as taking 15.6 seconds to execute
under Turbo and 76 seconds with IBM Pascal. I agree with the 15.6-
second figure for Turbo when none of the debugging options is enabled
(the default state), but if the IBM compiler is used with debug options
enabled so that it competes on equal footing (default for IBM is debug
checking on), it runs in 12 seconds. A quirk in Turbo is that it normally
does not allow a user to interrupt a running program except when I/O
is being performed. Thus if the reviewers had tried to stop the prime
sieve program in mid course, they would only have been able to do so
by rebooting. If the user interrupt is enabled, then Turbo slows down
by a factor of 15! It is worth noting that this enormous factor-of-15 loss
in speed is unusually severe for the prime sieve program; other pro¬
grams 1 have tried indicate that the factor lies between 1.1 and 3. 1 have
no explanation for the very large spread in degradation factors. The
IBM compiler does not offer the option of ignoring user interrupts and
does not share this malady.
It has been my experience that Turbo is slower than IBM Pascal by
about a factor of five in doing pure floating-point operations (i.e, , add,
subtract, multiply, divide, and the standard functions sin r cos, atanr In,
exp, and sqrt). There is admittedly a problem in making a good com¬
parison, since Turbos real variables are six bytes long and IBmMs are
only four bytes, but it & still difficult to understand the factor of five. I
Missing an installment of ' Pascal B to E 7 *4// back issue? of this column— from
juiy 1982— are still available; for further information, see page 4. The columns
will also be published saorc, as a sircgte volume, by Softalk Books,
by Bruce Webster and Deirdre Wendt
Turbo Revisited
do not understand the reviewers' result for floating-point operations r
which indicated that Turbo-executable code is much faster than that of
the IBM compiler. It may be that the difference between my experience
and that of the reviewers is again the large overhead that accompanies
the array checking, because the reviewers used a matrix multiply, pre¬
sumably with all the IBM debug options enabled as with the prime
sieve. What is clear is that both compilers could profit handsomely
from using an 8087 coprocessor There are several sources of 8087 sup¬
port for the IBM compiler, but unfortunately none for Turbo (the new
version of the Microsoft Pascal compiler apparently supports the 8087
as an option).
As Abigail might say, mea culpa. Yes, indeed, the Sdebug option
makes a big difference in execution speeds. Lets talk for a minute about
compiler options, and then well look at some revised benchmarks,
Most Pascal compilers allow you to specify how much runtime er¬
ror-checking you want. The most common checks are for I/O and
range errors; others include string parameter matching, divide-by-
zero, and variable initialization. These options are turned off and on by
special commands, such as {£r+}, {&debug — }H embedded in com¬
ment statements in the program. Usually, you turn options on during
program development and then turn them off after the program ss de¬
bugged to increase speed and decrease size.
Since they're embedded in the program, most options can be turned
off or on for selected portions of code. For example, it's common prac¬
tice to turn off I/O error-checking for routines doing interactive input
of data. That way, for example, the user can't bomb the program by
hitting a number instead of a letter. In such cases, the burden falls to the
program (instead of the compiler) to handle any problems that might
arise. In the case of I/O errors, you usually have some way of reading
an error code and handling it appropriately (see the November 1983
through January 1984 columns for discussions on error handling in
IBM Pascal, UCSD Pascal, and Pasoa]/MT+).
Turbo Pascal (in its IBM implementation) has eight compiler options
(see pages 212 to 214 in the Turbo manual). Only two of these — array
index checking and user interrupts (eontrol-C abort)— are turned off by
default. IBM Pascal has about thirty options, seven of which are turned
on or off by the Sdebug option (see chapter 4 of the IBM Pascal man¬
ual), Of those seven, two are turned off by default: debugger entry
point generation and integer initialization. Pascal/ MT + has about a
dozen options; the three that generate error-checking code are turned
off by default. UCSD Pascal (both implementations) also has about a
dozen options, only two of which really affect execution speed* Of
those two, one is turned off by default.
To make comparisons more fair, we reran all the benchmarks with
the following options turned off:
Turbo I-, R-, U-
IBM Pascal DEBUG -
Fascal/MT 4- R- , T-, X-
10ft June 1984 Sofia Ik for the IBM Personal Computer
ANNOUNCING
VERSION 2.0
EXTENDED PASCAL FOR YOUR
IBM PCf PC jr„ APPLE CP/M,
M3D0S, CP/M 86, CCP/M,
OR CP/M 80
"What 1 think the computer industry is headed for: well
documented, standard, plenty of good features, and a
reasonable price."
Jerry Pournelle,
Byte, February 1984
HThe Perfect Pascal"
Alan R. Miller,
Interface Age , January 1984
If you already own Turbo
Pascal version 1.0, you can
upgrade to 2.0 for $29.95. Just
send in your old master with
your check. (Manual update
included of course}
NOW . . .
WITH
WINDOWING
« $49.95
NEW FEATURES
WINDOWING!
. , . This is a real shocker. On the IBM PC or PC jr. you'll now
have a procedure to program windows _ Any part of the
screen can be selected as a window and all output will
automatically go to this part of the screen only. As many
windows as you please can be used from the same
program.
AUTOMATIC OVERLAYS!
.No addresses or memory space to calculate, you simply
specify OVERLAY and TURBO PASCAL will do the rest.
GRAPHICS, SOUND AND COLOR SUPPORT
. . For your IBM PC or JR!
FULL HEAP MANAGEMENT!
. . . via dispose procedure.
OPTIONAL 8087 SUPPORT!
Available for an additional charge.
If you have a 16 bit computer with the 8087 math
chip — your number crunchinq proqrams wilt execute up
to TQX faster!
ORDER YOUR COPY OF TURBO PASCAL VERSION 2.0 TODAY
For VISA and MasterCard orders call toll free: 1-800*227-2400 x968
In CA: 1 -800-772-2666 x968
(lines open 24 hrs, 7 days a week)
Dealer & Distributor Inquiries welcome
408-438-8400
CHOOSE ONE (please add
$5.00for shipping and handling
for U.S. orders)
_ . _ Turbo Pascal 2.0 $49.95
_ _ Turbo Pascal 2.0 with
8087 support $89.95
_ —Update (1 .0 to 2.0) Must
be accompanied by the
original master $29.95
_ Update (1,0 to 8087) Must
be accompanied by the
original master $69.95
Check - Money Order _
VISA — — — MasterCard _
Card#: _ _
Exp. date: _ Shipped UPS
m BORIPDD
H» INTERNATIONAL
Borland International
4113 Scotts Valley Drive
Scotts Valley. Catilornia 95066
TELEX. 172373
My system is: 8 bit _ 16 bit _
Operating System: CP/M 80 _ _ _ _ _
CP/M 86 _ MS DOS _ _ _ PC DOS _
Computer: _ Disk Format: _
Please be sure model number & format are correct
NAME: _
ADDRESS: _ _ _ — _ _ _ _
CITY/STATE/ZIP: _
TELEPHONE: _
California residents add 6% sales tax Outeide U.S.A add $15.00 ilJouisiefe
oi (J.S. A paymeni musl be by bank draft payable in (he U S- and in U-S
dollars.) Sorry, no C.G.D. or Purchase Orders B2
"If you make more than $35,000 a year.
Lumen has designed personal financial
planning and management software for you.
It can help you gain control over what may
have been hit-or-miss financial planning.
These days you can't afford hit-or-miss. "
— W. Thomas Porter
Director of Personal Financial Planning Services for the
Big-8 Accounting firm of Touche Ross
"When I wrote a best-selling book on personal financial
planning and management, I wanted to provide a com¬
plete structure men and women like you could use to
gain total control over their own financial affairs. Now
Lumen has transformed the financial planning and man¬
agement methods revealed in my book into two easy-
to-run software packages for the IBM-PC*/'
S PERSONAL
HNANQAL
k^l FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
W THete-R&RTEsr
The Personal Financial Planner
1. Net Worth Statement; Calculated for vou instantly
2. j d expend it -sro d ti >; Are you within safe
limits? Your Planner will tell you.
3. Investment Analysis and Strategies: Based on your own
financial circumstances.
i; The Planner helps you maximize benefits and
minimize tax exposure.
5. Find out what you should be doing
now to make your retirement dreams come true.
6. t otattf dlan ng: The most important facet of personal finan¬
cial planning becomes a breeze.
7. ' u j o: 3j 'ding; You have four children, ages6, 9r 12,
and 15, How much should you be setting aside now for their
education?
B. i Are you overinsured? Underinsured? Do
you have the right kind of coverage? The Planner wilt tell you.
9, i J : Up-to-the minute personal financial data at the
push of a button.
Lumen software is
exclusively represented by
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Business and Professional Division
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632
© 1 984 Prentice- Hal I, Inc.
' IBM-PC is a registered trademark of
International Business Machines Corporation.
The Personal Financial Manager
1* Cheeking Accounting Management: Provides instant
checkbook balancing— absolutely accurate.
2. ; : GOUi No more racking your brains when
an incorrect bill comes in.
3. T . V W You'll know instantly what you owe and
what you own. Changes take only a few seconds.
4, Are you on budget? Over budget? Under
budget? Find out what you need to do to stay on target.
5, Ch .‘Ck : The Manager can actually write your checks
for you. And your balance adjusts automatically.
B. LjO' To E tr ■ '.'ook j v “ ig: The Manager sets up double
entry books for you automatically.
7. You get a complete series of 170 pre-defined
accounts. No time wasted setting up your own.
8. Tax kaports and Cttdar All your tax records kept in perfect
order. You can do your income taxes during halftime of the Rose
Bowl.
9. Transaction Maintenance: Income from all sources and ex¬
penses to all sources are orderly and balanced. Pull a report
whenever you want or need one.
Lumen Systems, Inc. T M'
The Brightest Name in Software
Instant $20 Rebate
Ask for our Instant $20 Rebate Certificate at any
Authorized Lumen Dealer, It is worth $20 when
presented as partial payment for either the Per¬
sonal Financial Planner or the Personal Financial
Manager, For more information, or the name of the
Authorized Lumen Dealer nearest you, call toil free
800-345-8112 (PA residents call 800-662-24441.
Offer expires October 31, 1984
UCSD/NCI R-, I-
The results are shown in figure 1. As Lynch said, IBM Pascal does much
better and, in fact, beats Turbo Pascal in two of the four benchmarks.
However, IBM Pascal is still slower (by almost a factor of two) than
Turbo on the two versions of the matrix multiplication benchmark.
Also of interest is the performance of the NCI/native code versions,
coming in fourth, first, second, and second in the four benchmarks —
not too shabby for "slow" p-code.
Turbo
IBM
MT+
NO
NCI/nat
UCSD
UCSD/nat
Compile time
4.9
61.8
62.1
25.8
24.8
29.9
29.0
Link time*
(1.0)
53.3
46.5
—
21.6
—
30.4
Exec code size
9086
32640
10752
—
—
—
—
Execution time
15.3
12.3
15.2
164.3
20.9
234.3
23.8
Integer Matrix
Turbo
IBM
MT+ '
NCI
NCI/nat
UCSD
UCSD/nat
Compile time
6.8
80.5
68.9
31.9
33.1
38.0
38.1
Link time*
(1.5)
66.5
61.0
—
39.6
—
49.8
Exec code size
9622
32640
17408
—
—
—
Execution time
4.9
9.9
12.3
13.3
4.5
27.5
12.4
Real Matrix
Turbo
IBM
MT+
NCI
NCI/nat
UCSD
UCSD/nat
Compile time
Link time*
6.9
80.9
68.2
39.5
32.3
37.9
37.8
(1.5)
66.1
61,3
— ,
40.8
—
51.1
Exec code size
9662
33536
17408
—
—
—
St-
Execution time
10.5
18.9
40.0
20.8
13.9
51.5
39.4
String Sort
Turbo
IBM
MT+
NCI
NCI/nat
UCSD
UCSD/nat
Compile time
8.8
79.3
68.7
23.9
24.6
37.9
36.3
Link time*
(1.4)
51.7
48.9
—
36.1
—
44.1
Exec code size
9667
24960
11264
—
—
—
*-
Execution time
12.3
3.1
14.6
17.2
10.7
26.9
11.5
•Note: Turbo Pascal doesn't have to link. The value listed as "link time" is actually the RAM-to-RAM
compile time. The link times for NCI/native code and UCSD/native code represent the time required foi1
native-code generation.
Figure 1. Prime Number Generator.
So, apologies to all you IBM Pascal enthusiasts for the unjust bench¬
marks. Of course, this still doesn't change some of the other compar¬
isons, such as disk space requirements (a factor of ten), executable code
size (a factor of three), and compilation and linking time (factors of
anywhere from fifteen to over a hundred, depending upon the compari¬
sons you want to make). And, of course, there's the matter of cost ($50
versus $300).
Some of Lynch's other comments also deserve response. First, he's
right about the slowdown if the user-interrupt option is turned on
($« + ). The Turbo times change to 140.9, 6.7, 12.2, and 23.7 seconds
respectively for each of the benchmarks, yielding slowdown factors of
9.2, 1.4, 1.2, and 1.9. However, we aren't bothered by the inability to
abort out of a program at some point other than during I/O, since most
of our programs tend to be I/O-heavy. Also, rebooting doesn't bother
us much, either. All things considered, we'll keep the $U option turned
off.
We take issue, however, with Lynch's observations about speed
differences with floating-point operations. Figure 2 shows a benchmark
program that uses the five most common real operands: + , —
and sqrt. The loop is executed 200 times, with the variable a going from
1.0 to 200.0. We ran this benchmark with the compiler option settings
listed above. Figure 3 shows the results: IBM Pascal is faster, but by a
factor of only 1.05, not 5. (We ran a similar benchmark using the func¬
tions abs, arctan, exp, In, sin, and cos, just for Turbo and IBM Pascal.
IBM was faster by a factor of 2.3, still a far cry from Lynch's claim.)
What's amazing is that the NCI implementation of UCSD Pascal beat
everyone. The people up at NCI must have done a lot of floating-point
routine optimization. Pascal/MTH-, on the other hand, is appallingly
slow (and this is version 3.1, which, according to the release notes, had
sped up the floating-point routines).
PROGRAM teals;
VAR
a,b,c,d,e treat
indx ; integer;
ch : char;
BEGIN
writefHlt any key to continue: ');readln(ch);
a :*■ 0.0;
FOR indx 1 TO 200 DO BEGIN
a a + 1.0;
b :™ (a* a* a);
c :■» b / a; '
d sqrt(c);
e:- d — 1
END;
writeln(dir{7)/e = ',e;12:7)
END. { of PROGRAM reals }
■ V/::
•s Turbo
Figure 2.
IBM MT+
NCI
NCI/nat
UCSD
UCSD/nat
Compile time
7.6
61.6
61.4
23.1
23.7
28.2
28.4
link time*
(0.8)
73.9
60.4
—
19,6
i-
24.6
Exec code size
9043
32512
17408
—
—
—
—
Execution time
8.4
8.0
109.0
4.2
4.2
19.9
19.9
Significant digits
11
6.5
16
16
16
16
16
e - 0?
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
Figure 3. Real numbers test.
Another problem showed up with the real numbers benchmark:
IBM Pascal printed out a nonzero value at the end, the only Pascal to
do so. IBM Pascal uses only four bytes for its real numbers, which
limits them to about 6.5 significant digits. Turbo Pascal uses six bytes
(yielding eleven significant digits), while all the rest were set up for
if m u i Tin rr i
Are you writing programs in BASIC or Pascal? The popular Peeks
’ll Pokes has a disk with 58 programs and a 38-page manual that
helps you get ‘underneath the covers’ of the PC. Learn how to use
PEEK, POKE, INP, OUT, and DOS/BIOS function calls to do
what you want, fast! Do you want to perform functions not
available from BASIC or Pascal? It’s all explained in the manual
and demonstrated in the sample programs. Source code included!
Want to know more? The Inside Track! is a collection of advanced
utilities for the PC programmer. It contains a disk with 61 pro¬
grams, a 42-page manual, and a fold-out memory map that helps
you get better performance from the PC. With this package you can
give your programs assembler-assisted speed from high-level lan¬
guages, get control over memory, customize and control the PC,
and more. Some programs require DOS 2.00. Source code included!
Peeks ’n Pokes shows you how to:
• Access the system’s configuration
• Unprotect BASIC programs
• Scroll part or all of the screen
• Access the file directory
• Logically swap printers
• Read and change the keyboard
• Find more Peeks and Pokes
• And much more. . . for only $30.00
The Inside Track! shows you how to:
• Read/ write files as fast as DOS
• Display data on the screen faster
• Reserve memory for your use
• Copy memory to another location
• Copy-protect your programs
• Load large programs faster
• Control the keyboard settings
• And much more. . . for only $45.00
MasterCard and VISA accepted. Shipping charges: $2.50 per order for UPS; $2.50 per item for First Class Mail to USA and
PanaHa; $6.00 per item for Air Mail outside USA and Canada. Dealer inquiries invited.
Data Base Decisions • 14 Bonnie Lane • Atlanta, GA 30328 • 404/256-3860
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 111
What?
What is the latest R&D activity in Japan in the field of industrial robots?
Is the name “datascan” trademarked?
Which?
Which drugs have been successfully used to treat osteoporosis?
What?
What is the current and projected market for frozen orange juice?
Are?
Are there any personal computer user groups for attorneys in the Boston area?
Could you get answers t<
Introducing
I n-Search— immediate answers
to millions of questions.
Answers.
In-Search is an easy-to-use per¬
sonal computer software package
that lets you instandy retrieve
answers to your questions from
Dialog® the world’s largest col¬
lection of online databases.
With In-Search, your per¬
sonal computer and modem,
you can access this information
over telephone lines.
All The Answers.
Imagine scanning thousands of
articles in seconds. In-Search can
do just that.
In-Search gives you over
80-million articles from thou¬
sands of sources: Newspapers,
magazines, technical journals,
investment reports, wire services,
periodicals, annual reports and
Yellow Pages.
Easy Answers.
1. Type the words or subject
you wish to research into your
personal computer.
2. In-Search takes it from there,
bringing up all the articles and
references you need.
3. Simple on-screen graphics
guide you through every step.
Fast Answers.
In-Search can find in minutes
what would usually take days or
weeks to find. You can now
spend more time using informa¬
tion because you spend less time
tracking it down.
Once you have the infor-
Which?
Which South American companies import electronic components from the U.S.?
How?
How can I find all the orthodontists in Toledo for my direct mail campaign?
What?
What are the mechanical properties of shape memory materials?
Has?
Has the cost-effectiveness of teleconferencing changed in the last year?
Who?
Who are some of the experts in medical sonar scanning techniques?
ill these questions by 9 a.m.?
mation, you can store it on disk
or print it out. In-Search is com¬
patible with most word process¬
ing programs.
Any Questions?
To learn more about In-Search,
visit your local computer store, or
call (408) 986-1200 today. We’ll
send you a demonstration disk¬
ette designed for IBM, IBM-
compatible, or Texas Instruments
personal computers.
In-Search.
I_
f
Menlo Corporation
4633 Old Ironsides, Suite 400
Santa Clara, CA 95050
□ Enclosed is $5.00 for my In-Search
demonstration diskette.
□ Please send me a free booklet with more
details.
Use your VISA or MasterCard
to charge the purchase of your >5.0(1 diskette.
(California residents please add applicable sales tax.)
name
COMPANY
address
crP?
STATE ' ’ zip
MY OCCUR\TfON IS:
52
eight-byte reals (sixteen significant digits).
As for 8087 support, Borland is releasing a version of Turbo that
uses the 8087 chip (called Turbo87). The NCI p-System also supports
the 8087 directly, as do Microsoft Pascal and Pascal/MT + . IBM Pascal
(which is an early version of Microsoft Pascal) does not directly sup¬
port the 8087; however, I assume from what Harvey says that libraries
are available from third-party vendors that allow IBM Pascal programs
to call the 8087 coprocessor. When I can get a system with an 8087 chip
in it, I'll do some new benchmarks.
Turbo Bug Fixes. In earlier columns we've talked about the string-
comparison bug in early versions of Turbo Pascal (which has since been
fixed). As it turns out, there was an additional bug in the earliest copies
that went out, a bug that sharply limited the precision of real numbers.
If you run the program in figure 2 and get a nonzero result, then you've
got the earliest version. Figure 4 shows the patch necessary to fix this
bug for MS-DOS, IBM-PC versions. As for the string-comparison bug,
figure 5 shows how to fix either MS-DOS version. If you have further
questions, or if you have a version not covered here, contact Albert
Holt, Technical Support Manager, Borland International, 4113 Scotts
Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 (or call 408-438-8400).
Place your DOS disk (with Debug.com) in drive A arid your Turbo Pascal in diskdrive 0. The boldfaced
text shows what you should type:
A)DEBUG B;TURBO.COM
-E0DBE
NNNN:0DBE 74.90[SPACE] 15.90
-W
WRmNG NNNN BYTES
-Q
A)
Figure 4. Real number patch,
New Product Announcements. Borland International is releasing
version 2.0 of Turbo Pascal. The two major implementation changes
ISAM ROUTINES
$69.95
GET and PUT records to disk files by "KEY”. Under 2 seconds.
Browse forward or backward in key sequence.
Update any part of the record including the key.
Automatic recovery of disk space occupied by deleted records.
Keys do not have to be unique and can be any length.
Routines accessed from any Basic application. 6K overhead.
FAST!! Sorts 5000 records in 12 seconds.
Supports Multiple Keys. Compilable.
"A Top Notch Subroutine Package" - Vol. 2.4 Personal Computer Age,
MULTI-JOB Run several jobs simultaneously $159.95
Concurrent Processing for DOS 1.1 and 2.0
ELECTRONIC DISK & SPOOLER $49.95
HP7470 10 Plotter Programs $24.95
FUN 10 Games Package $29.95
. . without a doubt, the best game value on the market”
- Vol. 2.1 Personal Computer Age
FUZZY WORM "Like Centipede” $29.95
CHOMPS "Pacman Like Game” $29.95
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP $69.95
BOWLING LEAGUE SECRETARY $99.95
SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING $69.95
WRITE FOR FREE CATALOG
DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED
ENSIGN SOFTWARE
7337 NORTHVIEW
BOISE, IDAHO 83704 U.S.A.
Telephone Order Line
For Bank Card Sales
(208) 378-8086
are the addition of true overlays and support of the standard procedure
dispose . Overlays allow you to call in chunks of code as needed. This,
combined with the chaining facility, should allow you to create large
programs. Dispose provides an alternative to the mark! release ap¬
proach to dynamic variable allocation that Turbo and other Pascals
use. It gives you more flexibility in creating and (especially) disposing
of dynamic variables, but it can cause problems with fragmentation of
free memory (see the August '83 column for a discussion of dynamic
variable allocation).
In addition to these changes, Turbo 2.0 offers several "goodies”
(their word): expanded support of text mode as well as support of me¬
dium- and hi-res graphics. Besides allowing you to select between the
different modes (with background and palette selection, where appro¬
priate), Turbo also provides routines to plot points and draw lines.
Also, you can define windows in both text and graphics modes. A
sound routine is provided as well.
Follow the directions shown in Figure 4. Here is the patch for IBM-PC versions (MS-DOS):
A) DEBUG BjTURBO.COM
— E08E5
NNNN:08E5 73.76
-w
WRITING NNNN BYTES
-Q
A>
Here's the patch for all other MS-DOS versions:
A > DEBUG B:TURBO.COM — E 083D
NNNN:083D 73.76
-W
WRITING NNNN BYTES
“Q
A>
Figure 5. String compare patch.
As mentioned earlier, a special version of 2.0, Turbo87, supports the
8087 math coprocessor. Turbo87 will not only make floating-point
code run much quicker, but it will also support an eight-byte real num¬
ber (instead of the usual six bytes), allowing you to have sixteen signif¬
icant digits.
Digital Research has released version 3.2 of Pascal/MT+ for MS-
DOS (which they call "PC DOS 86"). A slew of bugs have been fixed
(the release notes list seventeen fixes to the compiler), and some new
features have been added, including transcendental support of the
8087. The update costs $70 with documentation, $40 without. Distri¬
bution of the update is being handled by Alexander and Lord, 177 Web¬
ster Street, Suite A-3727, Monterey, CA 93940.
Network Consulting, Inc. (NCI) has released an introductory ver¬
sion of its p-System, called "Practical Pascal." It's geared toward stu¬
dents and novices and appears (from what's listed in the literature) to be
fairly complete. The cost is $295, with educational discounts available.
If we can get a copy (or, at least, more documentation), we'll let you
know more about it. They're also offering three p-System support
packages. PascallSAM is a B + Tree-based keyed ISAM file access
package and is available for $645. PascalForm is a forms-generation
package for designing screen and printer layouts. p-Form is a video
forms package as well, selling for $215. NCI is at Discovery Park, Suite
110, 3700 Gilmore Way, Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5G 4M1; (604) 430-
3466.
Slick Software has released the Compiler Assist Program (CAP), a
package designed to aid developers using IBM Pascal. We haven't
tested it, but its function is automatically to go through the Pasl, Pas2,
and Link stages, taking action should errors occur along the way. The
cost appears to be $27.50 per copy. For more information, contact
Craig J. Conrad, Slick Software, Box 641, Harrisburg, NC 28075, or
call 704-455-5927.
Conclusions. Thanks for all your letters and comments — they let us
know that people are really reading this column. Should you want to
write directly, send your letters to Bruce Webster and Deirdre Wendt,
7907 Ostrow Street, Suite F, San Diego, CA 92111. Well try to answer
you directly or through this column. A
114 ]une 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Introducing a graphics system to meet your
every need, whether it’s creating sophisticated
presentations that integrate screens from
your favorite programs — or expressing yourself
with freeform drawings.
EXECUTIVE
PICTURE SHOW
What Lotus™ 1-2-3 has done for
spreadsheets, Executive Picture
Show™ is doing for graphics.
Ordinary business graphics programs
are fine as far as they go. Bnt they are
hardly the stuff of interesting business
presentations.
If you need the ability to integrate and
modify screens from other programs5
snch as Lotus 1-2-3* dBASE II®,
CREATABASE, and WordStar™ — or
just give free rein to yonr artistic side
with free- form drawings — yonVe
probably been frusta ted on both counts.
Now there's a business graphics system
that gives you these capabilities, plus the
usual line, bar, 3D bar, horizontal bar,
and surface and pie charts.
It's the Executive Picture Show and it's
long on capabilities where other pro¬
grams fall short.
With Executive Picture Show you
can create:
9 free- form graphics
9 business graphics
9 slide show presentations
9 animated presentations
Presentations to keep
viewers on the edge
of their seats.
Not only does Executive
Picture Show accept
screens from other pro¬
grams, it lets you inte¬
grate them into your pre¬
sentation where and
when you want them. Then
you can add the sound, mo¬
tion, and color that insures a cap¬
tive audience. Dropping in your com¬
pany logo or making bar graphs take
form right before your viewer's eyes is
easy as pressing a few keys.
Executive Picture Show allows you to
use both yonr IBM® monochrome and
color monitors during your presentation.
This means you can show a spreadsheet
on your monochrome monitor, while a
graph or drawing is formed on your color
display.
Interactive presentations.
The Executive Picture Show was de¬
signed with you and the audience in
mind. Not only does it allow you to de¬
sign a moving presentation, it gives your
viewers a chance to respond with more
than enthusiastic reviews. They
can actually input their responses
so the program — and you —
can act on their input.
Easy to use.
We had the business executive
in mind when we designed this
tool. That's why Execntive Pic¬
ture Show cuts through all the
“computer-ese” to simplify in¬
struction and prompts you
throughout the program. We've
reduced many steps to single key com¬
mands and included a handy reference
card to help you get your show on
the road.
Executive Picture Show is playing at a
computer store near you for just $195. If
you want to preview this program, con¬
tact PCsoftware of San Diego directly for
a demonstration disk and documentation
priced at $30,
Req uires : G rap hies a d a pter a n d di sp la y
128 K RAM
2 disk drives or hard disk
IBM PC or IBM XT
Lotus 1-2-3, CREATABASE, and WordStar arc
trademarks of Lotus, PCsoftware of San Diego, and
Micropro International Corp-, respectively. dBASE
H and IBM are registered trademark;; of Ashton¬
Tate and International Business Machines, Inc.
Dealer inquiries invited.
VISA and Mastercard accepted.
Dealer orders contact:
Micro D
Software Distributors
Vitek
(CA) 800 432-3129
(Nat.) 800-854-6801
(CA) 800' 2 5 2-402 5
(Nat.) 800-421-0814
(CA) 800-237-7290
(Nat.) 800-237-3443
Also available through Computer! and Corporate.
PCsoftware
PCsoftware of San Diego
Suite 416
9120 Gramercy Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
(619) 571-0981
8087 SUPPORT FOR THE BASIC COMPILER
BY ED BOGUCZ
116 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Scientific and engineering computing on a PC is a challenge
for programmers working with IBM's current Basic language
products. IBM's Basic interpreters and compiler are con¬
strained to a 64K workspace, which limits the size of a program
and its data. In addition, the current Basic products can't drive
Intel's 8087— the math coprocessor chip that gives the PC im¬
pressive number-crunching capabilities.
Several independent firms have introduced products to make
IBM's Basic better suited to scientific and engineering comput¬
ing. These products, which enable the Basic compiler to
produce much faster code for large applications, include com¬
piler libraries that support the 8087 and routines that extend
the available data space to the machine's limits (640K). This
month we'll look at several of these enhancements.
Four firms offer products that give 8087 capability to the Ba¬
sic compiler: Field Computer Products, Hauppauge Computer
Works, MicroWare, and Seattle Computer. Their products
differ in intent, implementation, computational effect, and
cost. You should evaluate your needs carefully when choosing
8087 support for Basic programming.
The Basic compiler can drive the 8087 in two ways. The li¬
braries distributed with the compiler can be replaced with li¬
braries that use the 8087 for numeric operations; or a set of
primitive functions can be defined to let the programmer oper-
Softalk for the IBM Persona! Computer June 1984 117
J-VI .
Sr
j /!
'Hit.
-f"ppj
1 JM r\H-l
' to r [ linilh '' s^^t;ir.r|P
Jftu _1n,|^'rtaf
1 to r t
llM,
'■Min.
■ -ijpruff
■'■■'in j
. rWftLJ
^ I
-M
4-J
«Ej;
■H;
i
(F|1
£ >l'nierpc
l" «fPJi'ri
CTftl Hi,m‘‘ . . .
'tv J -j Jp
4
^rUt, tt|(|
CnHW'1"
t**rtirV
\
GET TO KNOW YOUR IBM PC BETTER
Discover more about what makes your computer work. Explore the possibilities of your machine. Let
Craig Stinson take you on a guided tour.
Understanding the inner workings of your computer can help you to use it more efficiently. It can help
get you out of situations heretofore requiring control -alt-del. This book offers explanations of the systems
you interact with daily, and how to extract the best performance from them.
Use your computer intelligently. Let it do more. Find out more about it.
$9.95 ISBN 0-88701 -004-0
Please add $1 .50 for shipping/handling (II 1.45 total j.
California residents add 6,5 percent sales lax (Si 2. 09 total).
IBM Personal Comparer is a trademark of International Business Machines.
A COMPILER LIBRARY IS ESSENTIALLY
A STOREHOUSE OF ^MACHINE INSTRUCTIONS FOR
FUNDAMENTAL OPERATIONS. . .
ate the 8087 directly from Basic. Each alternative is implemented in
products available from several firms. We'll discuss the replacement
libraries first and then contrast that approach with the primitive-func¬
tion alternative.
8087 BASIC LIBRARIES
Let's start by reviewing the role of libraries in compiler operation. A
compiler library is essentially a storehouse of machine instructions for
fundamental operations, such as multiplication or exponentiation.
When processing a user's program, the compiler notes which library
routines are required to produce the desired results for each statement.
After the program compiles, a user links the program object file with
the compiler libraries. The linker retrieves machine instructions from
the libraries for each routine cited by the compiler and inserts them in
the appropriate places in the user's code.
With the IBM Basic compiler, the user, at compilation time, makes
an important choice between two linking alternatives. The standard
(default) choice is to link with the runtime library Basrun.lib. If this
path is selected, the runtime module Basrun.exe is loaded with the us¬
er's code at execution time. The other alternative (the /O compiler op¬
tion) is to force the linker to produce a self-contained run file. This
method produces code that runs faster, at a cost in flexibility; you can't
chain programs that have been compiled with the /O option.
The libraries distributed with the IBM Basic compiler contain in¬
structions only for the PC's microprocessor, the Intel 8088. Thus a
straightforward way of using the 8087 with the IBM compiler is to re¬
place the standard libraries with new versions that incorporate instruc¬
tions for the NDP in numeric calculations. This approach is taken by
Hauppauge Computer Works, MicroWare, and Seattle Computer.
The three companies' products differ in two fundamental areas: the
handling of the mismatch between the IBM and 8087 real-number for¬
mats (see last month's article for more about this mismatch), and the
flexibility available to the user during program linking. The vendor's
approach in each area can affect the performance and utility of the
product. We'll discuss the approaches used in each vendor's product
and then present some benchmark times for two simple example pro¬
grams.
The products from Hauppauge Computer Works and Seattle Com¬
puter handle the real-number format mismatch similarly: They convert
from IBM/ Microsoft format to Intel/ IEEE and then back again in every
numeric operation. For example, the instructions for multiplication
would require converting both multiplicands from IBM /Microsoft to
Intel/ IEEE format, loading the numbers into the 8087, executing an
NDP multiplication instruction, storing the product in Intel/ IEEE for¬
mat, and, finally, reconverting the product to IBM /Microsoft format.
The constant conversion of numbers between formats obviously
takes time and therefore degrades the apparent performance of the
8087. For fast-running calculations, such as addition and subtraction,
the conversions take as much time as the operations themselves. Even
so, the speed of the NDP means that numeric operations still take place
faster with this method than with the 8088 instructions in the original
compiler libraries.
MicroWare takes a more fundamental approach to the real-number
format mismatch problem. They eliminate the problem at its source by
supplying a modified version of the IBM compiler that produces only
IEEE constants. Since this modified compiler doesn't require conver¬
sions between formats, it can produce faster-running code. The possi¬
ble difficulty with this approach is that numbers stored in
random-access files generated with the Basic interpreter (or the original
IBM compiler) will be incompatible with the modified compiler. Micro-
Ware provides simple routines that allow users to do the required con¬
versions.
In addition to increased speed, MicroWare's products give the user
more flexibility during program linking. MicroWare provides both a
modified runtime module (Basrun.exe) and a complete compiler library
(which replaces Bascom.lib), so users have a choice about the execution
of their programs.
Hauppauge Computer Works and Seattle Computer don't supply
runtime modules. As a result, their libraries require the use of the com¬
piler /O option. As noted previously, the /O option prohibits program
chaining, which may be an undesirable constraint in applications re¬
quiring long programs.
To get a feeling for the effects of the different 8087 libraries, we ap¬
plied the products from Hauppauge Computer Works and MicroWare
to the two example problems presented earlier in this series (April
1984). (Seattle Computer's library wasn't available for this review. Be¬
cause of the similarity of their format-conversion techniques, you can
expect the performance of Seattle's package to be similar to that of
Hauppauge Computer's.) Recall that one example problem is the calcu¬
lation of 2,100 logarithms for the Babbage Log Table. The other test
case is the multiplication of two twenty-by-twenty matrixes, a problem
that requires eight thousand multiplications and eight thousand addi¬
tions.
Table 1 shows execution times for various solutions of each problem
in single and double precision. Included are times for the IBM Basic
interpreter, the original IBM Basic compiler (both with and without the
/O option), the compiler library from Hauppauge Computer Works,
and the modified compiler and libraries from MicroWare (with and
without /O). Also listed are times for the 8087 assembly language pro¬
grams discussed in April.
The results listed in table 1 confirm our expectations about the per-
BABBAGE LOG TABLE 20x20 MATRIX
(2100 logs) MULTIPLICATION
Single
Precision
Double
Precision
Single
Precision
DoubW
Precision
IBM Basic interpreter
35.6
155.9
83.6
96.3
EXECUTION WITH RUNTIME MODULE:
IBM Basic compiler
11.0
28,6
7.6
11.7
MicroWare modified compiler
2.34
2.50
4.45
4.80
STANDALONE RUN FILE:
(produced with compiler / O option)
IBM Basic compiler
10.3
27.8
6.12
10.2
Hauppauge compiler library
2.56
3.76
5.28
B.60
MicroWare modified compiler
and library
L57
1.72
2.94
3.29
8087 PRIMITIVE FUNCTION CODE:
MicroWare primitive function
library with modified compiler
1.35
1.37
2.14
2.21
MicroWare MatrixPak
-
-
0.962
1.064
8087 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE CODES
0.681
0.695
0.497
0.598
Table 1. Sample problem execution times (all figures in seconds).
So f talk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 119
CHICAGO
NEW YORK
FORMERLY
APPLEFEST
& PC’83
THE PERSONAL COMPUTER
USERFEST
Plan now to attend the Personal
Computer Userfests, the largest
events ever. . .for Apple and
IBM PC users.
Userfest brings together two of
the largest, most successful
shows ever conceived for per¬
sonal computer users: Applefest
and PC'83. Now that Apple and
IBM can run each other s soft¬
ware, and with so many products
adapted for both systems, the
two shows merged beautifully
At Userfest you'll see- and try
out— all of the newest state-of-
the-art products for your Apple,
IBM PC or work-alike. Each Show
has hundreds of displays and
exhibits, and thousands and
thousands of products including
innovative new software, power
peripherals, accessories, sup¬
port services, books and publi¬
cations. Products to help you
explore the full potential of your
computer for office, home and
school applications.
Userfest features all the major
makes of Apple and IBM com¬
puter compatibles. In fact, it's the
largest display of these products,
and biggest gathering of IBM
and Apple experts, ever assem¬
bled in either city. Hence, you
can learn more in two days at
Userfest than you could in
months of visiting computer
stores or reading trade journals.
And best of all, everything on dis¬
play at Userfest is for sale, usu¬
ally at special show prices, so
you can save hundreds, even
thousands of dollars by making
your purchases at the Show^
So don't miss the Personal Com¬
puter Userfest when it comes to
Chicago and New York in 1984.
It's a once-only opportunity.
Order your tickets in advance
and avoid long lines. Admission
is $10.00 for a one-day ticket, or
$20.00 for four days. Children's
tickets (under 10 years of age)
are $4.00 and $8.00. If you need
hotel accommodations and/or
airline reservations, check the
line on the Advance Ticket form.
FEATURING
IBM, APPLE &
WORK-ALIKE
COMPUTERS &
COMPATIBLES
THE PERSONAL COMPUTER
USERFEST
USERFEST/
CHICAGO
Thursday-Sunday
May 3-6,1984
10:00AM to5:00PM daily
O'Hare Exposition Center
9291 West Bryn Mawr
Rosemont, Illinois
(next to Chicago's 0‘Hare Airport)
USERFEST/
NEW YORK
Thursday-Sunday
September 20-23, 1984
Madison Square Garden
10:00AM to 5:00PM daily
For information about exhibiting
at the Personal Computer User-
tests, call or write Northeast
Expositions, 822 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, Mass 02167,
Tel: 617-739-2000.
For hotel information call or write
Trade Show Department, Fox
Travel, P.O. Box 498, Waltham.
Mass 02254. Tel: 617-890-1770
or 800-225-8410 ext. 314.
Uscrfest (formerly known as
Applefest and PC'83) is pro¬
duced by Northeast Expositions.
822 Boylston Street, Chestnut
Hill, Mass 02167
ADVANCE
TICKET
ORDER FORM
Mail this form (or a facsimile)
with full payment to Northeast
Expositions, 822 Boylston Street.
Chestnut Hill. Mass 02167.
Tel: 61 7-739-2000 No ticket
orders accepted 14 days or
nearer to each Show Your tick¬
ets will be mailed one month
prior to the Show. Sorry, no tele¬
phone or credit card orders please
Pnmpc=in^ (it any)
Address
Pity
^atnL
7ip
lei, Day ( ) _
Evening {
)
Enclosed is fi M payment! tor
aclull or»dav lckets(S) $10 00 each
adult found ay lickets@ S20 00 each
■1 f.V\W\
use this line lor children s iicke! orders
O Cl leek I tore d you need hole! dnd/oi on line tnformaiion
ONE FRUSTRATING LIMITATION OF THE
CURRENT IBM BASIC PRODUCTS IS THE 64K MAXIMUM
WORKSPACE AVAILABLE FOR PROGRAM AND DATA.
formance of the different products: Eliminating required conversions
improves execution speed. Micro Ware's libraries and modified com¬
piler produce faster code than Hauppauge's libraries and the original
compiler. The difference between the approaches is especially apparent
in code that contains mostly simple operations like addition and multi¬
plication. For example, the overhead from conversions limits the
benefit of Hauppauge's library to a 14 percent reduction in execution
time for the matrix multiplication problem; MicroWare's reduction is
more than 50 percent for a similarly linked code. The penalty paid for
conversions is less apparent in problems that involve many transcen¬
dental function evaluations, such as the log table.
8087 PRIMITIVE FUNCTIONS
The second alternative for driving the 8087 with the Basic compiler
is to create a set of primitive functions that allow the user to operate the
NDP directly. Using this approach, programmers can write 8087 as¬
sembly language routines from within Basic. Generally, such programs
are faster than those that use the compiler libraries. In addition, pro¬
grammers can take advantage of some complex 8087 functions that
have no counterparts in Basic.
Two vendors offer libraries of primitive functions: Field Computer
Products and Micro Ware.
The use of primitive functions is best described by an example. Fig¬
ure 1 shows a standard matrix multiplication routine in Basic. The
code performs the multiplication C — A * B, where A is an L x M
matrix and B is M x N. An equivalent code using MicroWare's primitive
functions is shown in figure 2 (both listings are in single precision).
As you can see by looking at figure 2, a programmer using primitive
functions essentially writes an 8087 assembly language routine from
within Basic. The calculations for each element C(I,J) begin by loading
a 0 onto the 8087 stack. The usual inner product calculation proceeds
by pushing element A(I,K) onto the stack and then multiplying it by
element B(K,J). The classic stack add operation (MicroWare's
FADDCS) adds the top two stack elements and pops the stack, leaving
the result on the top of the stack ready for the next pass through the
loop. When the inner product loop has been completed, the top of the
stack is stored in C(I,J) and the stack is popped.
Table 1 includes execution times for programs written with Micro¬
Ware's primitive functions and compiled with their modified compiler
(using /O). Note that the primi five-function method produces faster
programs than the 8087 Basic libraries alone. In particular, the execu¬
tion times for the matrix-multiplication test are reduced by about 30
percent. Primitive functions seem especially well suited for applica¬
tions, such as matrix multiplication, where intermediate results can be
kept in the 8087 registers instead of being swapped in and out of mem¬
ory. In practice, programmers can use primitive functions to optimize
processing of computation-intensive routines. They are a powerful
complement to general-purpose 8087 Basic libraries.
The most significant difference between the primitive function li¬
brary of Micro Ware and that of Field Computer Products has to do
with the handling of the IBM— Intel real-number format mismatch.
MicroWare's primitive function library is designed to be used with their
own modified IBM compiler, so they have no format mismatch. Field's
primitive functions are intended to be used with the original IBM com¬
piler, and the user is responsible for converting between the IBM and
800 'MATRIX MULTIPLICATION ROUTINE:
810 'Compute C = A * B when A is LxM and B is MxN.
820 '
830 FORI — 1 TO L
840 FOR J = 1 TO N
850 SUM - 0!
860 FOR K ** 1TOM
870 SUM - SUM + A (IK) * B(K,J)
880 NEXT K
890 C(lj) - SUM
900 NEXT J
910 NEXT I
920 RETURN
Figure 1. Standard Basic matrix multiplication routine.
800 '8087 PRIMITIVE FUNCTION MATRIX MULTIPLICATION:
810 'Compute C — A * B when A is LxM and B is MxN.
820 '
825 CALL FINIT 'Initialize 8087
830 FORI = 1TOL
840 FOR J 1 TO N
850 CALL FLDZ 'Load 0 onto top of stack
860 FOR K — 1 TOM
865 CALL FSRLD(A(I,K)) 'Push A(I,K) onto stack
870 CALL FSRMUL(B(K,J)) Multiply stack top by B(K,J)
875 CALL FADDCS 'Add product to accumulating sum
880 NEXT K
890 CALL FSRSTP(C(I,J)) 'Store C(I ,J) and pop stack
900 NEXT I
910 NEXT I
920 RETURN
Figure 2. Matrix multiplication using MicroWare's library of 8087 primitive functions.
Intel formats. Field provides conversion routines for single-precision
reals but not for double precision. The lack of double-precision conver¬
sion routines significantly limits the utility of Field's package for scien¬
tific and engineering programming applications.
EXTENDED DATA SPACE
One frustrating limitation of the current IBM Basic products is the
64K maximum workspace available for program and data. The work¬
space limit means that scientific and engineering programs requiring
large arrays must be compromised in order to be handled by IBM Ba¬
sic. As part of its 8087 support. Micro Ware offers two products that
effectively eliminate restrictions on memory devoted to data storage.
One product is the previously described library of primitive functions.
Included in this library are functions that load, store, and manipulate
variables located anywhere in the PC's memory. The only hitch is that
you have to tell the routines the exact location (segment and offset) of
any referenced variable. But if you can do your own memory manage¬
ment, you can have access to all your installed memory from within
MicroWare's modified Basic compiler.
MicroWare relieves the user of the details of memory management
with a package devoted to matrix operations. Using Matrixpak, the
122 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
WINDOWS!
Everybody's doing them.
And everybody's pursuing integrated
software.
Right now the Macintosh computer
from Apple is the pacesetter in these
new technologies.
You can keep pace with the latest
developments by subscribing to
ST.MAC, the magazine about
Macintosh and Lisa technology It
won't be long before comparable
software will be ava l table for you r PC.
You'll need to make intelligent
decisions about if or when fo convert
to the new software.
ST.MAC can keep you abreast of
developments surrounding this new
generation of software: what it does,
what it doesn't do, and what to expect
in the future. That's information that will
be invaluable as the technology
reaches the PC market,
ST.MAC is your window to the newest
approaches in computer use. You can
look through it for only for twelve
issues.
SI MAC
Box 7041
North Hollywood, CA 91605
Apple, Lisa, and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc.
ON THE WHOLE, THE MOST COMPLETE
FAMILY OF 8087 PROGRAMMING AIDS FOR THE IBM
BASIC COMPILER IS PROVIDED BY MICROWARE.
programmer only has to specify the location and size of the area in
memory to be devoted to the storage of matrixes. Next, the program¬
mer defines the size and type of the matrixes to be used through a rou¬
tine analogous to a Basic dim statement. Matrixpak takes care of the
details of where elements are located in the matrix storage area. The
memory management technique used in the package limits matrix size
to 64K per row. In practice, this means that matrix size is limited only
by the amount of contiguous RAM in your machine — up to the PC's
640K limit.
In operation, the matrix storage area is external to Basic's data
space, so matrix elements are stored and retrieved through Matrixpak
subroutine calls. For example, the storage of variable Const in matrix
element C(I,J) requires the statement
CALL PUTM(IC,CONST,I,J,IER).
Here, IC is an index that identifies the number of the matrix in the
Matrixpak storage area; if matrix C was the third matrix defined, IC
would be equal to 3. IER is an error flag tripped if I or J is outside the
defined matrix bounds. This method of accessing matrix elements is
sometimes inconvenient, but it's the only choice for increasing the data
space size, given the current IBM Basic compiler.
MicroWare mitigates the inconveniences of accessing matrix ele¬
ments by also providing routines for several standard matrix opera¬
tions. Included are subroutines for equating matrixes, swapping rows,
and dividing elements on a row by a constant. Also included are rou¬
tines for matrix multiplication and Gauss-Jordan elimination. The
Gauss-Jordan routine can directly produce either a matrix inverse or
the solution of a system of linear equations.
As an added attraction, MicroWare says that the routines are writ¬
ten with speed in mind. They say all their routines "exhibit throughputs
approaching the theoretical limit of the 8087." Indeed, a test of the gen¬
eral-purpose matrix multiplication routine showed that its speed com¬
pares favorably with the special-purpose assembly language codes
developed for this series (see table 1). Matrixpak would seem to be a
valuable and powerful tool for anyone working with large arrays and
the IBM Basic compiler. It also can be used with the Microsoft Fortran
and Pascal compilers.
CONCLUSIONS
On the whole, the most complete family of 8087 programming aids
for the IBM Basic compiler is provided by MicroWare. Micro Ware's
modified compiler is the most logical and efficient way of handling the
mismatch between the original IBM real-number formats and those
used by Intel. Micro Ware's libraries offer the greatest flexibility for pro¬
gram execution. In addition, MicroWare offers a powerful set of NDP
primitive function routines that allow the user to control the 8087 di¬
rectly from within a Basic program. A matrix-calculation package that
removes all constraints on the amount of memory committed to data
storage completes Micro Ware's family of 8087/ Basic support prod¬
ucts. Taken together. Micro Ware's package makes the IBM Basic com¬
piler a fairly powerful tool for scientific and engineering pro¬
gramming.
Field Computer Products (909 North San Antonio Road, Los Altos,
CA 94022; 415-949-34 57).
Basic87. 8087 primitive function set. $50.
Hauppauge Computer Works (358 Veterans Memorial Highway, Suite
MSI, Commack, NY 11725; 516-360-3827).
87 Software Pak. Macro library for Masm and compiler libraries for
Basic, Pascal, and Fortran. $180.
MicroWare (Box 79, Kingston, MA 02364; 617-746-7341).
87 Basic. Modified compiler, library, and runtime module. $150.
87Basic+. 8087 primitive function library. $75.
Matrixpak. 8087 matrix manipulation routines. $150.
Seattle Computer (1114 Industry Drive, Seattle, WA 98188; 800-426-
8936.)
Flash Calc. 8087 macros for Masm and Basic compiler library.
$89.95. ▲
Porting'Mainframe Software the I laril Way?
• PC-XTRACT™ — Extracts individual
SUBROUTINES. FUNCTIONS and
BLOCKDATAS from FORTRAN source code
while creating a compilation command file.
$49.00
• PC-OVRLAY™ — Creates optimal memory
overlay structures for FORTRAN. PASCAL.
Ada, •,C.,‘ BASIC, etc. $89.00
• PC-CNTROL™ — A complete library of FOR¬
TRAN callable screen attribute and cursor
position control functions. $29.00
• PC-KLENUP™ — Renumbers FORTRAN
source code statements, adds spaces and in¬
dentation for improved readability. $49.00
• PC-XREF™ — Develops comprehensive cross-
reference maps of FORTRAN source code.
$69.00
All tools furnished with complete documentation
and run on IBM PC and PC-compatibles under
DOS 2.0 and require 128K memory.
StratCom Systems, Inc.
1010 Turquoise St., Ste. #242
San Diego. CA 92109
(619) 488-2262
124 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Micro
Flash 's
o
o
In our 4th year of business (One of
the Originate/}
Positive buying power within the
industry meaning well-stocked
inventories and a consistent supply
O A reputation as specialists in the
business and corporate marketplaces
O A dedicated approach: to honest
customer service
0 Flash 6“^
n/i*cf0 *
O We sell the latest versions
O We support what we s@ 1 1
We won't tell you to cal f the
publisher or manufacturer for
after-sale support
We want you to call us!
O We won't sell you anything we don't
think yon need
O If the product is defective when you
receive it— we'lt replace it!
o
Ten*5
O
o
o
o
MasterCard or VISA -with no credit
card surcharge added
Mail Orders accompanied by certified
or cashier's checks
Call our Credit Manager for informa¬
tion on institutional purchase orders
Ail returns must have a Return
Authorization Number
SI DO. 00 minimum order
Products and prices subject to change
without notice
n/ii"0
Flash
ShipP1"9
O $6.00 for UPS surface (except for
printers and monitors)
O Add S3.D0 per item for UPS 2nd Day Air
O All shipments fully insured at no
extra charge
O Call for information on foreign orders,
US Mail, CQDs
O Overnight delivery service available
HARDWARE
RETAIL
MICRO
& PERIPHERALS
PRICE
FLASH
AST Research SixPakPlus 64K
S 395,00
269,00
64K Ram Chip Sets "SI per K"
100.00
64.00
CDC 9409 DS/DO Disk Drive . .
525.00
249.00
Davong 10 MB External .
2395,00
1795.00
Hauppauge 8087 Chip .
175.00
157.00
Hayes Smartmodem 1200 , . .
699.00
489,00
Hercules Graphics Card .
499.00
369.00
Panasonic Half-Height Drives
495.00
169.00
Paradise Multidisplay Card , ,
589,00
489.00
Printers -Epson, Okt, Diablo,
NEC, Toshiba, Brother, Others
SCALES
Princeton Graphics
Max- 12 Amber Monitor . ..
249.00
189.00
HX-12 HkesRGB Monitor.,
695,00
524,00
SR-12 Super Hi res
RGB Monitor
799,00
629.00
Scan Doubler .
249,00
214.00
PTI Dafashield Power Supply . .
359.00
329.00
Buadraro Expandable Quad board 295.00
239.00
Diskettes - 3M, Dysan, Others
SCALLS
SOFTWARE
AshtonTate dBase IP .
$ 700.00
$379.00
FRAMEWORK .
695.00
549.00
8PI Systems Accounting"
lea, mod.) .
595.00
398.00
Continental Home
Accountant Plus* . . . . ,
150.00
84.00
DayFlo (for IBM PC XT) ....
495.00
371.00
Fox and Getter QUICKCGDE* . .
295.00
179.00
Human Edge Sales Edge .
250,00
198,00
Microrim Inc. R:base 4000 . .
495,00
349.00
Microsoft"' Multiplan'** .
195,00
148.00
M u Iti -Too lr“ Word with Mouse
495. 00
348.00
Multi-Tool M Cash Plan _
125.00
94.00
Basic Compiler* . .
395,00
276,00
Business Basic Compiler . ,
600. 00
418,00
C Compiler . .
500,00
349.00
Pascal Compiler .
300,00
224.00
Fortran Compiler" . . .
350.00
244.00
Cohol Compiler* .
700,00
518,00
Sort Facility* .
195.00
148.00
Macro Assembler .
100.00
74.00
Project .
250,00
198,00
Micros! ut Crosstalk XVI .
195.00
119.00
MultiMate Int'l MultiMate . . .
495.00
29B.00
Peter Norton Utilities .
80,00
55.00
Rose Soft ProKey Vers 3.0
129,95
95.00
SPI Open Access .
595.00
475.00
PRODUCTS FOR APPLE MACINTOSH
Davong MacOisk 10 MG .
$2395,00
2059.00
Microsoft^ Multiplan"1 . . .
195.00
148,00
Basic Interpreter .
150.00
122.00
Chart .
.... I25.00
99.00
Word . .
195,00
148,00
Maxell 3W Diskettes . . .
7,10
6,00
Many other
products available
at comparable
discounts!
Quantity
pricing available
For product
information,
price quotes,
technical support
and California
orders,
please call
415/680-1157
To order from
outside California,
call
800/458-2433
MICRO
y>
COMPUTER SYSTEMS
1110 Burnett Avenue, Suites J & K
Concord, CA 94520
Member: Better Business Bureau. Chamber of Commerce
lis fed: Oun & Bradstreet
BEGINNERS’ CORNER
by Kathy Talley -Jones
Fun and Useful DOS Commands
or the past few
months we've been
looking at a num¬
ber of DOS com¬
mands that help us in our everyday work with
application programs. DOS, as you remem¬
ber, provides the working environment for the
software most commonly used by PC and PCjr
owners. The commands we've examined so far
are format , which prepares a disk so that files
can be stored on it; diskcopy , which makes an
exact copy of one disk onto another; copy,
which copies individual files (or entire disks,
file by file); rename, which renames hies; erase,
which erases individual files (and can be used
mi
MICRO
11306 Southland Road
Fores! Park. Ohio 46240
TOTAL ACCESS TO
WWWWWWWWWWVWWWMWtfWWhrtAftiWIW*
Software
o BUSINESS ° EDUCATIONAL
° GRAPHICS/ ° PERSONAL
UTILITIES PLANNING
° WORD 0 BOOKS
PROCESSING
» ENTERTAINMENT
Hardware and
Accessories
» PRINTERS * DISK DRIVES
• INTERFACES • MONITORS
• MODEMS • DISKS
• RIBBONS
,“^J CALL ygj
1 -BOO -5 43-1114
Ohio ■ Alaska Hawaii
Call 513 -825 ‘5803
CINCINNATI CUSTOMERS USE
OUR SOFTWARE PICK-UP FACILITY
to erase an entire disk); and dir, which displays
the directory— a listing of a disk's contents.
Now we'll take the opportunity to look at
an assortment of other useful DOS commands.
These commands— ver, vot, date, time, els,
and type — may not be commands you'll use
every day, but you're sure to find them handy
nonetheless.
Ver. DOS has been in use on IBM micro¬
computers for two years now and has under¬
gone some evolution during that time. When
the PC was introduced in 1982, the operating
system that IBM first made available for it was
DOS version 1,0. DOS 1.1 quickly followed,
and in March 1983, DOS 2.0 was introduced,
DOS 2.1 became available at the time PCjr
was announced.
Just because DOS 2.1 is the most recent ver¬
sion available doesn't mean that everyone uses
it. Many people still use 1,1, and most people
using PC-XTs use DOS 2,0, not 2X
Yourd think the variety of DOSes in use
would cause a certain amount of confusion.
You're right, it does. There are in fact business
organizations in which some people use DOS
1,1 while others have moved on to one of the
later versions. This situation is likely to cause
more trouble for the group using 1.1 than for
those using DOS 2 or 2*1. That's because DOS
2 is able to read files on disks formatted under
DOS 1, but DOS 1 may or may not be able to
read a disk formatted under DOS 2.
A DOS 2 disk formatted with the /& op¬
tion, as:
FORMAT B;/S
can be read under DOS 1; such a disk will be
organized into eight-sector tracks instead of
DOS 2's normal nine sectors, 'Normal" DOS 2
disks (those formatted without the /8 option)
cannot be read in the DOS 1,1 environment. If
you've ever been working in DOS IT, asked
for a directory of a disk, and had it come up all
A'lissmg an installment of "Beginners' Comer"? The
current column began in February 1984 , but all feiack
issues are still available; for further information, see
page 4t The first "Beginners' Comer" columns (/une
1982— September 1983 ) are rcoiu available as a single
volume from Softalk Books ,
hearts and faces and act all balky, then you've
seen for yourself what DOS 1 does when it
tries to read a disk formatted under DOS 2,
That's one way to find out you're in the
wrong environment. Fortunately (for DOS 2
users, at any rate), there's an easier way. Just
type
VER
If you are working in DOS 2 or 2.1, you'll see
something like:
IBM Personal Computer DOS Version
2.10
If you're not, ♦ , if you're working in DOS IT,
CP/M-86, the UCSD p-System, Unix, or some
other operating system, you will not see this
message or anything like it. Youll get an error
message:
Bad command or file name
and you'll know that the operating system
loaded into your machine's memory isn't DOS
2 or 2,1, Mind, we re talking here about the
system present in your computer's internal
memory, not the system under which the disk
in your disk drive was formatted. These will
not necessarily be the same; you can, for ex¬
ample, boot your system with a DOS 2T sys¬
tem disk in the drive, then swap that disk for a
disk formatted under DOS IT. There's no
problem in doing that. The point here is
merely that the ver command indicates the ver¬
sion of DOS under which you booted your
machine; it says nothing about the format of
the disk in your dnve
The reason, incidentally, that you get an er¬
ror message (instead of some more direct infor¬
mation) if you use the ver command in DOS
IT is that DOS IT doesn't understand ver:
that command was introduced with the 2,0 re¬
vision of DOS* (It's worth noticing that error
messages are often useful and in formative,
even if unpleasant to receive.)
VoL Some people are so organized they re¬
member to include the volume parameter (/V)
whenever they format disks, thus cataloguing
their files in a tidy manner that is the envy of
their comrades. These people can use the vol
command to see what the volume labels on
their disks are. The rest of us have to scrabble
126 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
for what spare disks we can find and are con¬
stantly met with the taunt
Volume in drive A: has no label
Such is the price of spontaneity.
Date and Time . If you're one who tends to
sail through DOS's date and time prompts by
giving the return key two sharp raps at bootup
time, and who is later struck with remorse on
that account, you can redress your negligence
after booting by typing date and/or time and
giving the proper responses. Your computer
will take to heart the new information you give
it. If you want confirmation that your machine
does indeed know the time and date, all you
have to do is retype either command; it'll par¬
rot back what you told it, figuring in the odd
nanosecond or two that may have elapsed
since you issued the commands in the first
place.
Cls. Have you ever finished using a pro¬
gram and found the DOS prompt A) shining
from the middle of a jumbled garden of words
left on the screen by the recently departed ap¬
plication? If this happens and you have a little
DOS business to conduct, you can issue the cls
command, thereby wiping all that jumble
away. This command, not included in DOS
version 1, is a good idea borrowed from Basic
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
tor SPECIAL APPLICATIONS
=BULK MAILER $99.
A professional mailing list program that includes a sophisticated duplication
search and an incredible 32,000 name capacity with hard disk (up to 2400
with Apple/floppy version - up to 5400 with IBM/floppy version). Very
straight-forward and easy-to-use, includes many marketing features. Now
with Mail Merge utility and a new low price!
“BULK MAILER is both a technological and functional advance for the Ap¬
ple II and as such represents a significant breakthrough.” “rife with features”.
SOFTALK, June 1983.
•Duplication Elimination
•Broad Coding Capability
•32,000 Name Capacity
with Hard Disk version -$350.
•Zip and Alpha sorts
•Mail Merge Utility
•1-up through 4- up labels
•Remarks line
VlNVENTORY MANAGER II $199.
Newly revised and enhanced. Perfect for retailers, distributors or any business
involved with sales. Can track up to 2200 items on Apple, and up to 10,000
on IBM, and provides numerous management reports.
“INVENTORY MANAGER is among the most complete programs of its type
on the market today.” “no stone unturned” SOFTALK, Dec. 1982
Detailed Sales Reports
Prints Suggested Orders
Sorts by Vendor, Dept., Profit
Many More Features
•Ave/Cost & Ave/Sale Price
•Up to 99 Vendors
•Prints Purchase Orders
•Easy Stock Updating
LEGAL BILLING
$399.
Very friendly, fast and complete legal billing system. Features our exclusive
“Video Time-Slip” for “magic quick” record entries. Prints detailed, user-
controlled client statements. Very easy-to-use and straight-forward.
•Prints Lawyer Time Reports *User Designated Codes
•Prints Aging Reports •Automatic Interest Added
•Up to 200 Clients (220/IBM) *40 Character Remarks Line
•Up to 3500 Time Slips (6500/IBM) •Includes Trust Accounts
Available at your dealer or order directly from:
SATORI SOFTWARE
5507 Woodlawn Ave. N. mmm
Seattle, WA 98103 ICP
206*633*1469 Satisfaction Guaranteed
SATORI
SOFTWARE
(Basic has a similar command to clear the
screen). When you issue the DOS cls com¬
mand, your cursor will return to the "home"
position on the screen (the upper left-hand cor¬
ner). Any foreground and background color
selections you may have made will remain in
effect.
Type , Because DOS files must be given
such short names (that eight-letter limit can try
even the most inventive mind) we sometimes
find ourselves at a loss to remember what a file
contains. If you have one of these mystery files
lying around and you don't feel up to reexam¬
ining it by getting back into the application
in which you created it, you can let DOS do
the work. Issue the type command:
TYPE MYSTERY.DOC
(or whatever your file's moniker may be) and
DOS will throw the contents of your file onto
the screen.
But what's that, you say? Along with a few
intelligible phrases you're getting hearts and
faces? Why doesn't this file look just the way it
did in the application program you used to cre¬
ate it?
Not all files produce intelligible output in
response to the type command. Let's explore
this matter a bit further and start by using the
type command to scrutinize some of the files on
the DOS disk, starting with the file Find.exe.
Tell DOS to
TYPE FIND.EXE
DOS will print a line on your screen, the cur¬
sor will race through a few blank lines, and
then a few more lines — containing some let¬
ters, card suits, and punctuation marks— will
appear. Finally, you'll get a beep for your troub¬
les. That's that; doesn't look like much, does
it? Now let's look at a Basic file.
Colorbar.bas is one of the smaller files
you'll find on the supplemental DOS 2.1 disk.
This file contains a Basic program whose func¬
tion is to display the sixteen colors available on
the PC ;V. Pretty much the same thing happens
when you type this file as when you type Find,
exe, except the cursor doesn't spend any time
running through blank space. This time, how¬
ever, you can read the words, "The IBM Per¬
sonal Computer Colorbar," and you can see a
few phrases in quotes, such as "Personal Com¬
puter", mixed in with the sunbursts and nauti¬
cal flags. From this you can formulate a vague
idea of what the file contains.
Why do these files look like this when you
type them?
The answer has to do with the form in
which the computer stores information in files.
We'll take up this topic — and explore further
the ins and outs of the type command — when
we meet next month. ▲
128 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Printer Interfaces
rinter interfaces available in software pack¬
ages are often called printer drivers to
t reflect the fact that they drive, or com¬
mand, the printer's built-in computer.
Printer drivers do everything from simple character printing to using
whatever print enhancement and formatting features your printer has
available.
If you've been keeping up with the Intelligent Printer series, you're
quite familiar with how the PC uses printer command sequences to
induce your printer's built-in computer to print both ordinary and un¬
common characters. You also may have organized your printer's fea¬
tures into a handy printer reference card that lists these features by
functional area. You probably have tried out some of these features,
with the help of Basic.
Some printer drivers use your printer's intelligence in the same way
as you've learned to do in Basic, but others do not; there are actually
several methods used for programming a software package to use or
simulate printer features.
The printer drivers available in software packages use printer intelli¬
gence in one of three ways: the standard printer method, the enhanced
standard printer method (intelligent printer simulation), and the intelli¬
gent printer method. Some software packages offer you alternative
ways of using your printer, but most use just one method.
Standard Printer Method. Some software assumes that your printer
isn't much more than a typewriter attached to your computer and lim¬
its its use of the printer's intelligence to printing individual characters
(including spaces, carriage returns, and line feeds). Some of these pack¬
ages assume that the printer can also do form feeds, but others just issue
enough line feed command sequences to feed in a new page of paper.
Enhanced Standard Printer Method (Intelligent Printer Simulation).
Software that uses the enhanced standard printer method assumes that
your printer has no special features but acknowledges that it can do
such things as backspacing and reprinting entire lines. Such software
uses the backspacing and line reprinting capabilities of your printer to
simulate intelligent print enhancement and formatting features.
For example, using the intelligent printer simulation approach, a
software package might achieve boldface by repeating the printing of a
group of characters and underlining by moving the carriage back and
printing an underscore character (ASCII sequence number 095); these
are the same techniques you might use on an ordinary office typewriter.
The reprinting of an entire line, incidentally, is usually done by means
of a carriage return issued without a line feed.
Intelligent Printer Method. Many software packages written in the
last couple of years take advantage of printer intelligence by using the
programmable print enhancement and formatting features found in the
newer printers. These programs do their work in much the same way as
we've been doing from Basic throughout this series.
Print enhancements are taken care of in the printer's software,
rather than in the application software. This results in the smoothest
possible cooperation between your PC and printer and the best possi¬
ble use of your printer's features. The reason you get optimal use of
your printer's features is that the printer's designers— who have a much
more exact idea of how the printer works than do the people who wrote
the application software — determine how a feature is implemented on
the machine.
In addition to its numerous other advantages, the intelligent printer
method usually makes for much faster printing. For example, under the
intelligent printer simulation method, the printer usually has to make
two passes across lines that have bold or underscored characters — one
BASIC UTILITIES FDR THE IBfH PC-
THIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE PROVIDESTHE IBM’ PERSONALCOMPUTER USER WITH AMOS?
COMPLETE SELECTION OF ‘BASIC’ SUBROUTINES AND UTILITY PROGRAMS.
THE FOLLOWING UTILITIES ARE INCLUDED:
SASIC SOURCE CODE CROSS REFERENCE
This utility program will crijato t cross reference repot! of ■ BASIC
program which isstorecl on fliskm ASCU formal The following W><1 be
cross referenced with the tine numbers they topes' on
• 411 variables
• Afl constants
• All reserved wort)* (optional!
MINIATURE FULL SCREEN EDITOR
This utility progr am will allow youto enter up to twenty .tour lines otte»t
This is a lull screen ed>torand all cursor control keys are »vaiitWeto«
use It writ be most usefuil for creeling CRT displays and lor creating
'batch command file) '
BASIC PROGRAM LISTING UTILITY
True utiniy program win creates fancy' listing unto me printer it w<H
print any lile on the dakw hich i* stored in ASCII format The tottowmg
tyif! be printed at the too of each page
• H'eOder line 01 ygur choice
• Page number
• Date
• Program Nip name
LINE DRAWING' BASIC SUBROUTINE
The subroutine provides a simple way 1o draw
• A rectangle
• A vehicle line (with or without T ends!
• A horitontel Imp (with or without T ends)
<1 Lines may be either single or double lines
'INPUT. 'MESSAGE', 4 'CHANGE' BASIC SUBROUTINE
The input' subroutine wilt allow you to specify trie length of input type
of input and redisofay format The following types may bo specified
Error checking is done on a character by character basis
• Any ASCII character
• Only numbers
• A phone number
• A date as mm/dd/yy
• A social security number
• A yes/no entry
The ’message' subroutine will display a use specified message on the
24th line and return the cursor to its original position
The 'eh «nge‘ su brout me Witt allow y ou to enter a n u mber or ■ Meta on
the screen to be changed
RANDOM FILE SEARCH SUBROUTINE
Subroutine perform* a binary and sequential search tor a given key
• Fast typical search time 1 second
• Duplicate keys allowed
ULTRA BASIC TRANSLATOR
Support the following
• Define record layout
• LAQELS {up to 70 characters!
• Comment sections
• New String operator)
• Include external files
• Ail ISM BASIC Statements
• No lute numbers needed
MONITOR SUBROUTINES INCLUDED
• Determine monitor in use
• Which monitors in the computer
• Print text on monitor
• Transfer teit between monitors
• Highlight a section 0r screen
• Return a cna'acler 4 attribute code
a Clear lo End Ot Line
• Clear to End Ol Screen
STRING HANDLING SUBROUTINES
a Sort array m memory
• Convert to uppercase
a Convert to lowercase
• Strip apaces from (font
• Strip spaces from end
a Print using to string
MISCELLANEOUS SUBROUTINES
• Pack a string to RADIX
• Unpack a RADIX to ASCII
• Convert string to SOUNDEX key
• Get status of SHIFT CONTROL NUMLOCl
• Set status of SHIFT CONTROL NUM LOC g
■ Determine number of days between dates
• Determine me day otthe week
a Disable the BREAK key
• Delay for number ol seconds
• Pack and unoeck bit Hags
• Menu selection subroutine
• Select monochrome monitor for use
• Select color monitor tor use
• Set background to inverse video
a Set background to normal video
• Display large characters on screen
• Look up a file in the directory
PROGRAM TO UN PROTECT A BASIC PROGRAM
•MATRIX FUNCTIONS’ BASIC SUBROUTINE
Thrs eubroullne prqvnjee the totWmg ‘matrW funcitonsr
• Matrix inversion
• Matrix multiplication
• Maim input
Allows an unknown number ol entries to be entered in a m
3
Complete source code provided all su brou tHrter»$Brt (j*
used with the BASIC Compiler.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
IBM' PERSONALCOMPUTER
64 K RAM
1 DISK DRIVE
PRICE: S95.00
Software package come* complete with 1 30*p$»a ltMtn»l
A two diskette* in a 3-ring vinyl binder.
BASIC BUSINESS SOFTWARE, INC.
P.O. BOX 26311
LAS VEGAS, NV 89126
(702) 876-9493
Missing an installment of “The Printed Word"? All back issues of the column —
from August 1983— are still available; for further information , see page 4.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 129
ordinary pass and a return pass with the printing mechanism in a
slightly different position. Printer drivers using the intelligent printer
method can achieve these special effects in a single pass.
The methods that take advantage of printer intelligence give you the
best access to your printer's features and actually make better use of
your PC, because the printer's computer does all the work associated
with print enhancement and formatting, rather than burdening your
PC with the job. We'll try to concentrate here on software packages
that take advantage of printer intelligence, but we'll be looking at the
other methods as well. Several approaches to using intelligent printer
features are available, and they're all widely used. We'll examine them
briefly and look over at least one example of each as we move along.
Configuring for a Fixed Number of Printers, The first of the more
flexible methods software vendors use to make their software work
with your printer is to supply you with a configuration program in
which you specify your printer's make and model. The software pack¬
age takes over from there; it specifies which print enhancement and
other options your printer has available and determines how they are
used in the printer you have. The biggest advantage of this method is
that the burden of understanding how your printer is programmed and
what its command sequences are is on the software vendor, not on you;
you have to know only the make and model of your printer.
Software taking this approach commonly comes with print en¬
hancement commands that enable and disable the printer features. You
select features by embedding the enhancement commands within a
document with the help of function or other keys (usually in conjunc¬
tion with the control or alt key). Word processing packages often em¬
ploy screen-enhancement techniques that show you which print
enhancements you've selected in your text (for example, a word you
want bold will appear brighter on the screen or phrases you want under¬
scored will appear underlined).
There are two disadvantages to this method. The first and major
one is that the software package may not support your printer; as a
result, you won't be able to use its features with the package. With so
many PC-compatible printers on the market, it's quite possible you'll
find yourself in this situation.
The other disadvantage is that you may not like the way the vendor
has implemented a particular feature for your printer, but you'll be
stuck with the implementation. For example, the vendor may specify
that your Epson printer print boldface by using the double-strike fea¬
ture and perhaps you'd rather do it with the emphasized feature.
Other methods for taking advantage of your printer's intelligence
are usually even more flexible, because they allow you to control the
command sequences that enable your printer's features. Their disad¬
vantage, of course, is that you are required to understand how to pro¬
gram your printer and how its command sequences are best used.
Regular readers of this column, however, shouldn't have any trouble
on that account.
Utility Setup Programs. The simplest of the other methods that al¬
low you to control command sequences requires that you run a printer
setup utility program prior to using the software package for the first
time. Some vendors supply this kind of utility with their packages;
standalone printer utility products are also available to do the job.
These utilities are especially handy for software packages that don't
take any advantage of printer intelligence, and the standalone ones are
invaluable if a package's vendor doesn't supply a printer utility. (Note
that printer utilities supplied with some software packages will work
with others you're using as well.)
SevenWare, for the 8087
Friendly — Powerful — Fully Documented — Available NOW
Test 87
Intro 87
MacLib 87
Verifies correct installation and performance of 8087 Co-Processor.
Gives you an interactive tour of 8087 capabilities.
Compares 8087 to 8088 for speed, precision and range.
Extends IBM Macro Assembler to include 8087 instruction set.
Uses Intel standard mnemonics, fully supported by DOS 2.0 “Debug”.
rilinmi fAilAil Explains all 8087 functions, with examples and application notes.
IIHJniClIlOn Usable at any level of experience, fully integrable with IBM Macro Assembler.
“This library provides considerably better error checking and
documentation thanmost others . . . The detailed descriptions of
the 8087 commands and howtheywork. . . are vastly better than
any other I’ve seen.”
(From The Book of IBM Software 1984, *1984 by The Book Company, Los Angeles, CA)
SevenWare software package, including all three programs & documentation $109; with 8087 chip, $309
Extensions
I/O 87, a development library of input/output routines . . $24
Trig 87, a library of trigonometric functions and inverses . . $24
Package Price, I/O 87 and Trig 87 with SevenWare . add $39
Send check or money order to:
? ? 7 SolveWare 1 t !™
P.O. Box 1246, Dept. K
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
(213) 5434242
VISA/MC Accepted. Dealer inquiries invited. Calif, residents add 6Y2% tax.
Intel, 8087 and 8088 are trademarks of Intel Corporation. 8087 mnemonics used by
permission of Intel Corporation, copyright 1981. IBM is a registered trademark of IBM
Corporation. SevenWare, Test 87, Intro 87, MacLib 87, I/O 87, Trig 87, SolveWare, and
the SolveWare logo are trademarks of SolveWare.
130 ]une 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
All you have to do is run the printer utility and use it to enable one
or more features, such as bold or underlined printing, and then exit
from the utility and run the software package. Your printed output will
be produced using whatever features you have enabled with the utility.
These utilities generally are easy to use, but they have a major short¬
coming: If you want to have different types of printing in various places
throughout your report, you're out of luck. Whatever feature or fea¬
tures you enabled before you started will be with you for the duration
of your printout. Another difficulty is that certain printer features stay
in effect for only one line of printing (the wide command sequence for
the Epson printer that we've been using as an example in this column is
a case in point, although this restriction has been altered in later Epson
models). If you enable a feature restricted in this manner, it will last for
only the first line of your output.
One last objection is that some people don't like to run a separate
program to access printer features, even though doing so may be better
than having no access at all.
Command Sequence Insertion . Another method, which is often
used in word processors and text editors, lets you insert printer com¬
mand sequences directly into your text wherever you want to enable or
disable a feature. Some such packages use a special character or charac¬
ter sequence, followed by the ASCII numbers of the command se¬
quences you wish to use; with others, you type in the command
sequences (including the escape character) required to enable the
printer feature you want.
This method isn't difficult, but it has two drawbacks. In some cases
the paragraph formatting, or reflow, program doesn't work correctly
when printer command sequences are inserted into the text. The format
routine assumes that the command sequences, along with any special
characters required, are ordinary characters that must be pushed into
shape. If you're always in a situation where a line format or print en¬
hancement can be enabled or disabled between paragraphs, or if you're
producing some kind of chart or table where paragraph formatting isn't
important, this may not be much of a problem.
The major disadvantage of this method is that you may have to stop
and look up a command sequence each time you want to use it. If
you've made a printer reference card for your printer, this isn't hard,
but if you do a lot of word processing it can still be annoying.
Command Sequence Tables, By far the best printer-driver method is
one that uses a table of printer command sequences that you supply.
This method is based on the standard programming technique of using
data tables to describe something.
The tables in table-driven printer drivers describe the printer com¬
mand sequences you want the software package to use to enable or
disable printer features. To take an example from our MX-80 printer,
you may wish to implement bold printing with double strike, empha¬
sized, or both features; or you may not want to implement it at all. The
choice is yours.
Once the data tables have been loaded, you use the software pack¬
age's print enhancement commands to enable and disable the features.
This is usually easier than entering the codes directly, because the com¬
mands are on a menu or use function or other keys.
Data tables are also commonly used in software packages that sup¬
port a fixed set of printers, but these packages don't allow you to con¬
trol the data in the tables. User-supplied table-driven printer drivers let
you supply the data and use your printer's features any way you like.
Also, packages employing this method work with just about any
printer that can be attached to your PC, even printers that the pack¬
age's authors have never heard of.
The PFS Series. We'll start our survey of printer drivers by looking
at Software Publishing Corporation's PFS series, which includes PFS :
File, PFS: Report, and PFS: Write. All these programs are highly rated
for their ease of use and functionality.
How does the PFS series apply printer intelligence? Is using your
printer's features with PFS products as easy as using the products them¬
selves? Let's see.
File and Report are delivered with a printer setup utility, named
Printer, that you have to run before you use the programs; Printer can
also be used prior to running most other PC programs.
After you start running Printer, you specify the port (Lptl:, Lpt2:,
or whatever) to which your printer is attached. The PFS series is one of
the few around that directly support use of a second or third printer (a
topic we'll take up in a later column). Having specified a printer port,
you're then presented with a screen on which to enter the command
sequences for the printer features you want to use.
You may enter any command sequence by typing the required char¬
acters. The PFS Printer utility allows you to enter the escape character
(which is why this program uses F6 to exit; other PFS programs use the
escape key for that purpose). For "normal" characters (those with AS¬
CII sequence numbers 032 and above). Printer displays the character
associated with the ASCII sequence number you type; for the escape
character, Printer displays the word "Escape", and for the other charac¬
ters whose ASCII sequence numbers are less than 032, Printer displays
the control-code names (see the February 1984 "Printed Word" for an
explanation of control-code format).
When you're running Printer, you have to know exactly which
codes to enter, so your printer reference card should come in handy. If
you make a mistake, you can press F6 to leave Printer without sending
any command sequences to your printer.
PFS:File and PFS: Report make no further assumptions about your
printer's intelligence. Both programs use line feed command sequences
(instead of form feeds) to start new pages, although both allow you to
specify the number of lines you want printed per page. This can be
Graphicize
Your Text
Capturing IBM-PC color
graphic images and
putting them into
your documents is easy
with PRESS’N’PLOr. Imagine how
much more impressive your letters and reports will be with
graphic figures that before could only be seen on a screen or
on separate sheets of paper.
PRESS’N’PLOT works along with most programs that create graphics. You
can capture a graphic image immediately onto a printer and/or save it on a
disk. Saved images can then be easily merged into your documents.
PRESS’N’PLOT provides full color support for color printers. You can even
color the text in your documents.
PRESS’N’PLOT features include:
Image and Text Merge; Single, Double, and Quad Size; Left and Right
Rotation; Single and Double Intensity; Color Selection and Pattern Control;
Image Framing; Background Elimination; Black-White Inversion; File
Compression . . . $1 49.00
PRESS’N’PLOT Junior:
The screen print only part of PRESS’N’PLOT which includes: Screen
Rotation; Single and Double Intensity; Single, Double, and Quad Size;
Black/White Inversion; Background Elimination; and Printer Movement
Control . . $49.00
PRESS’N’PLOT and PRESS’N’PLOT Junior require:
PC-DOS 2.0, 1 28K, IBM Color Graphics Adapter.
Some of the printers supported are:
IBM® COLOR PRINTER
DATA PRODUCTS P-SERIES"
DIABLO Model C15CT Color Ink-Jet
TRANSTAR 31 5~ Color Printer
CANON PJ-1080A™ Color Ink-Jet
IBM® Graphics Printer
EPSON-MX™ Printer
OKI DATA"'
TOSHIBA P-1 350”*
AMERICAN PROG RAMMERS GUILD, LTD.
55 MILL PLAIN 17-5, DANBURY, CT 06810
(203)794-0396 1-800-828-8088
We accept VISA, Mastercharge, C.O.D.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 131
difficult to determine if you've redefined your line height (you have to
calculate the number of lines per eleven-inch page, for example).
PFS: Write is a different story. If you're a File or Report user, you
can, if you wish, use the Printer utility with PFS: Write (it's not deliv¬
ered with Write). But Write has a lot more to offer for making use of
printer intelligence.
There are two ways to use PFSiWrite 's printer driver. The authors
provided reprinting facilities for underlining and boldfacing of your
text, and they also made a provision for entering printer command
sequences directly into the text of your document.
Write implements the reprint facility through two function keys.
The F 7 key underlines text (and displays an underscored character on
the screen), and the F8 key makes the text boldfaced (and displays
bright characters on the screen). Both keys do their work one character
at a time, and you can't undo either feature without retyping the char¬
acter.
At print time, the underlining does its job by reprinting the line with
underscore characters beneath the characters you've asked to have un¬
derlined. Boldface printing is achieved by printing the characters two
additional times. Thus, underlining requires one extra print pass for the
line, and boldface requires two. The reprints for each feature aren't
done on the same pass, so if you have both underlining and boldfacing
in effect for a line, a total of four printing passes will be required.
PFS : Write gives you the alternative of using your printer's built-in
features by entering the command sequences directly into the text. All
you have to do is enter the command sequence between a character
sequence that starts with "*P" and ends with To enable empha¬
sized printing on the MX-80, for instance, you insert;
*P 27,69*
at whatever point in your text you want that feature to start.
PFS:Write will correctly format your paragraph, but you have to be
a little bit careful. Once you've used command-sequence insertion,
what you see on your screen is no longer what you get from your
printer. The screen display of the text will look as if it's been formatted
for the extra characters required for the command sequence (and
the * P), but the printed output will be formatted correctly, with no
printable characters in those positions. There's no display enhancement
when you're using this method, because PFS: Write hasn't any idea
what you're doing with the "*P" insertions. {PFS: Write also uses the
format for other types of insertions.)
Some experimentation with your document's format may be re¬
quired, especially if you're depending on page breaks to show up in a
special place. While we're on the subject of page breaks, let's mention
that PFS: Write doesn't use a form feed command sequence but depends
on line feeds to start a new page.
Using your printer's intelligence with the PFS series of packages is,
like working with the rest of the software produced by Software Pub¬
lishing, simple but effective. You may not find the Printer utility ap¬
proach satisfactory for all your reports but, where it will do the job, it's
relatively easy to use. PFS: Write's approach is more sophisticated, and
it's easy to use as long as you understand your printer and you are
willing to experiment with your document's format. In case you aren't,
PFS: Write offers the reprint facility — which works well, although it's
quite slow at its job.
Next month we'll take a look at Easy Write rll's user-supplied printer
table approach to a printer driver. While all such tables are excellent
ways for a software package to use your printer's intelligence, Informa¬
tion Unlimited Software went out of its way to provide outstanding
printer flexibility for its popular word processor.
See you then. A
Set-FX+ adds big pluses to the
versatility of all Epson printers.
□ Simple-to-set print modes, including condensed,
emphasized, italics and many more.
□ Print those missing IBM characters, including line
graphics, math and science symbols.
□ Create special characters or even design custom fonts.
□ Pivot Printing™ to rotate text 90° for super wide
spreadsheets.
Convenient access to your printer's full capabilities,
plus even more.
There are no difficult codes to remember or program.
Set-FX+ menus put printer power at your fingertips!
Set-FX+ software comes with a clear, complete instruction
manual, and quick reference guide. Set-FX+ even includes
an Ideas program and special fonts to get you started.
Special fonts include IBM, Old English, Greek symbols,
plus others.
No Epson can afford to be without Set-FX+. Only $59.95.
To get your Epson’s worth, ask your dealer for SoftStyle’s
Set-FX+ or order direct.
Toll-free orders: 1-800-367-5600
For the IBM PC, PC-XT, PCjr, Compaqand IBM compatibles running DOS. Compati¬
ble with the Epson MX, RX, FX and LQ printers as well as IBM graphics printers (MX
needs Graftrax III). Set-FX+ prints in fu(l speed text mode on the FX printer. MC/V1SA
accepted. Add $2 shipping/handling, U.S. and Canada ($10 for others).
lin SoftStyle
SoftStyie, Inc. • Suite 205, Dept. D • 7192 Kalanianaole Hwy.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96825 • (808) 396-6368
fiH SoftStyle
EPSON
132 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
by Ken Landis and Mark Herbers
Linear Programming, Part II; LPMaster
as t month we
looked into the ba¬
sics of linear pro¬
gramming (LP) —
what it is and how we set up a problem to be
solved using it. This month, we'll consider the
management issues involved in solving an LP
problem and see how to resolve the problem
we set up last month.
Our problem concerns a certain Tom
Monk, the owner of a company that manufac¬
tures peripherals for the PC. Tom's task is to
determine what the mix of dock and memory
cards should be to maximize his firm's profits.
This decision must be made immediately be¬
cause the production run will start almost im¬
mediately and will go on for two days.
Of course, Tom is not working w ith unlim¬
ited resources. He has 1,600 labor hours and
1,800 processing hours. And he also has only
sufficient parts on hand to make 350 memory
cards. These are his constraints,
Toms objective is to maximize his profit.
He makes $3 for each dock card he produces,
and $8 on each memory card. So why doesn't
he just make memory cards? Because memory
cards take four labor hours to produce, com¬
pared to two labor hours for clock cards. In
addition, clock cards require six processing
hours compared to two for memory cards. By
determining the optimum number of each card
to produce, Tom can maximize the use of all his
resources and make the most possible money.
As we saw last time, the problem can be
expressed mathematically as follows:
Xs equals the optimum number of dock cards
to be produced
X= equals the optimum number of memory
cards to be produced
The objective function is maximize
P - 3X, + 6X2
subject to the constraints
2X; + 4X: must be less than or equal
to 1,600 (labor hours)
6X, + 2X, must be less than or equal
to 1,800 (processing hours)
X, most be less than or equal to 350
(parts available for memory cards)
must be greater than or equal to 0
(no negative production)
X;j must be greater than or equal to 0
(no negative production)
Once this problem has been solved using
LP Tom will know how many dock and mem¬
ory cards to produce to maximize profit. Hell
also know what his profit is and how many
labor hours, processing, and RAM cards he
used. What won t he know?
For starters, the solution to the problem
doesn't tell Tom directly how many labor and
processing hours he has used. He'll have to cal¬
culate them himself by plugging1 in the value
of the optimum solution into his constraints.
To find out how many labor hours or process¬
ing hours remain, he 11 simply subtract the
number used from the number available Bui
another way Tom can determine the number of
hours left over is by simply adding another
variable to the constraint, which then makes it
an equation. This variable is called a slack var¬
iable, In Toms problem, well cal! the slack
variable for labor X, and the slack variable for
processing X,v When you add slack variables,
you must add one for each constraint. Once
these two slacks are added, the constraints
look like this:
2X, + 4XZ + X, must equal 1,600
(labor hours)
6X- + 2X; + Xj must equal 1,800
(processing hours)
X2 must equal 350 (parts
available for memory cards)
Xt must be greater than or
equal 0 (no negative production)
X2 must be greater than or
equal 0 (no negative production)
When the LP problem is solved, the slacks
will tell Tom how much excess capacity of la¬
bor and processing hours he has. Knowing ex¬
actly what his excess capacity is gives Tom the
option to direct these leftover hours to other
products, ask his people to take vacation, or
offer his people time off. The key point is that
he knows exactly what he needs to get the job
done.
There's one more question Tom would like
answered. How many of the RAM cards will
he have when production is completed? They
are difficult to come by and must be ordered in
advance. To find the answer to this question,
he simply adds another slack variable, X= to
the third constraint.
Tom is now ready to solve the LP problem.
He has two choices: He can solve it manually,
using a method known as the simplex tableau,
or he can use a piece of software. For the con¬
venience of this column, we ll assume he takes
the latter approach, and we ll assume further¬
more that he uses a program called LPMaster
(Applied Operations Research, Canoga Park,
California).
The simplex tableau is an iterative LP-solv-
ing technique. To solve the problem manually,
Tom would probably have to complete five to
ten iterations, or runs, through the problem.
Each time he would have to substitute values
for the variables and solve the equations simul¬
taneously. This process is time-consuming: it
involves matrix mathematics, and, because of
the number nf steps involved, people tend to
make errors doing it.
His alternative, using LPMastgr, is far more
efficacious it will allow him to solve the prob¬
lem correctly in a fraction ol the time it would
take him to do it manually.
In the w'orld of linear programming, Toms
problem is relatively simple. LP problems can
involve hundreds of variables and thousands
of constraints. Attempting to solve one of
these more complex problems manually is tan¬
tamount to committing mathematical suicide.
Yet problems of this size are commonly found
in business; when a piece of software like LP-
Ajaster is used, elaborate problems become as
easy to solve as the simple ones.
LPMaster, and programs like it, are de¬
signed for managers wrho understand what LP
can do but don't have the time or energy to
solve the problem manually — or to use a
batch-oriented mainframe system.
Using LPMaster requires Tom to structure
his problem. He did this when he designed the
objective function and constraints last month.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 133
Now, however, these equations have to be
transformed into a format LPMaster can un¬
derstand. The process is logical in nature
rather than mathematical.
Figure 1 shows the LPMaster input file. This
file stores all the information needed to solve
the LP problem. It can be created using any
text editor or word processor that can deliver a
standard ASCII text file. The format of the
stored information is determined by LPMaster .
The left-hand column headed by '"Defini¬
tions" is called the control card column. Con¬
trol cards are used by LPMaster to separate the
various parts of the input file. For example, the
information following Definitions defines the
resources, sales locations, products, and so on
needed to solve the problem. The Endef con¬
trol card tells LPMaster that it has read all of
the problem's definitions.
The Data control card starts the data sec¬
tion of the input file. All of the known infor¬
mation, such as gross profit, production costs,
and so on, is entered here. This section is ended
by the Endata control card.
LPMaster turns this raw information into a
machine-solvable problem when it encounters
the Compile control card. Once the compile is
completed, the Solve command solves the
problem. The Report control card instructs
LPMaster to produce the report. After it has
been processed, the user is asked where the re¬
port should be produced. The report can either
be sent to a printer or viewed on the screen.
Let's look under the Definitions control
card at the heading card Resources. When Tom
designed his input file, he had to assign two-
character names to each resource. For exam¬
ple, he used HR for labor hours. In LPMaster
the HR is called a description card. It defines
and describes a variable to the program. The
"labor hours" description that appears to the
right of HR is a comment field. Up to sixteen
characters of the variable can be entered to
document the input file.
In the Data section, Tom tells LPMaster
what the mathematical relationships are be¬
tween the products and his profit. Under Sales
by Location, MC is the gross profit on memory
cards, CC is the gross profit on clock cards.
This information is taken directly from Tom's
original equations. Tom could just as easily
have incorporated all of his revenue and profit
information into the model and let LPMaster
perform all the calculations —such as deter¬
mining gross profit. In his case, the gross profit
information was easier to get than all of his
raw numbers.
The more information Tom wants to incor¬
porate into the model, the more complex the
model becomes and the longer it takes to build.
Therefore he has done certain simple calcula¬
tions himself to make the model easier to build.
The Transfers section tells LPMaster what
the resource requirements are to build the
memory cards (MC) and clock cards (CC). For
example, from Tom's equations we know that
it takes four hours to build a memory card,
while a clock card requires two. This informa¬
tion is entered via a simple matrix. Refer to
figure 1 under Transfers. Looking at the first
line, which is labor hours (HR), we see that the
first column is headed MC, for memory cards.
The number -4 represents the four labor hours
required to build a memory card. The -2 under
CC (clock cards) represents the two labor
hours needed to build a clock card. This
scheme is used throughout LPMaster to show
the relationships between resources and prod¬
ucts.
The next section, Limits, tells LPMaster the
constraints Tom faces on resources. As we al¬
ready know from his equations, he can use a
maximum of 1,600 labor hours, 1,800 process¬
ing hours, and 350 RAM cards over the next
two days.
HRBuymat tells LPMaster the maximum
number of labor hours Tom can buy (or have)
over the next two days. Buymat stands for buy
materials. LPMaster understands three other
types of limits— a sales limit (Sell), a transpor¬
tation limit (Ship), and a production limit
(Manufc). In Tom's example we used a re¬
source limit, RMBuymat. Tom could have spe¬
cified it as RMManufc and achieved the same
result, because RAMs are used only to manu¬
facture memory cards.
As you can see, the matrix setup is used
again to define the maximum available, the
minimum available, and the required number
or amount of a resource or product that must
be used. In LPMaster these are referred to as
Max, Min and Fix.
At this point, Tom has entered all of the in¬
formation LPMaster needs to solve his prob¬
lem. Once the remaining control cards.
Compile, Solve, and Report, have been added,
the file is in a format LPMaster can use.
Tom simply starts up LPMaster, tells it the
name of his input file, and hits the enter key.
LPMaster then reads the input file, digests the
information it contains, and solves the prob¬
lem. Figure 2 is the report that shows Tom his
optimum solution.
The Overall Economic Summary tells Tom
that the maximum profit he can make on this
production run is $3,100, based upon the LP
problem he has fed LPMaster. If he had as¬
signed costs to his resources and selling prices
to his products rather than using gross profit,
LPMaster would have calculated the total rev¬
enue and cost of goods available for sale for his
run. Tom could have broken out his costs into
resources (raw materials), production costs
(labor hours, machine costs), and transporta¬
tion costs (delivery charges). The end result
would have been the same but it would have
TITLE
DEFINITION
RESOURCES
IBM PC PERIPHERAL PRODUCTION PROBLEM
HR
LABOR HOURS
PH
PROCESS HOURS
RM
RAMS
SALES LOCATIONS
LA
LOCAL AREA
PRODUCTS
MC
MEMORY CARDS
CC
CLOCK CARDS
ENDEF
DATA
SALES BY LOCATION
MC
LA
8.00 S/MEMORY CARD
CC
3.00 S/CLOCK CARD
TRANSFERS
HR
MC CC
-4 -2
PH
-2 -6
RM
-1
LIMITS
MAX
MIN FIX
HRBUYMAT
1600
LABOR HOUR LIMIT
PHBUYMAT
1800
PROCESS HOUR LIMIT
RMBUYMAT
350
RAM LIMIT
ENDATA
COMPILE
SOLVE
REPORT
Figure 1.
134 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
made available more information on how to
manage his business.
To reach this optimum gross profit, Tom
has to follow the guidelines set out under the
Optimal Plant Operation, Sales by Location
section. He must produce 350 memory cards
and 100 clock cards. Any other combination
of products will yield a lower gross profit. In
Tom's case the title Sales by Location may be
misleading. To LPMaster it can mean either
sales or production.
Answering some of Tom's questions about
how many labor and processing hours were
used and unused, LPMaster shows the maxi¬
mum/minimum/fixed amount defined in the
input file and the actual quantity used in the
resource consumption section. The Amount
column shows the actual quantity used to
achieve the optimum solution. The upper-limit
section is taken directly from the input file.
Look at Process Hours. Tom has 1,800
hours available but needs only 1,300. He can
use the 500 extra hours on other products. If he
didn't have this information, he would not
know how many excess hours (how much
slack) he had until after he completed produc¬
tion, and that would have been too late.
To solve Tom's problem manually, we
would have had to add one more variable for
each resource in the problem to find out the
amount of slack, if any, for each resource. In
LPMaster slack is found by subtracting the
amount of each resource used from the quan¬
tity available.
The last column in this section, Incentive, is
fascinating. This is what's known as the
shadow price . What's a shadow price? Let's use
labor hours as an example. Tom has 1,600
hours available, and he needs all 1,600 to reach
the maximum profit of $3,100, The $1.50 in¬
centive, or shadow price, tells Tom that if he
could get one more labor hour, his gross profit
would increase by $1.50. So, if he could buy an
additional labor hour for $1.00 over his cur¬
rent labor cost per hour, his gross profit would
increase $.50.
With this information, Tom can easily de¬
cide whether it's profitable to pay overtime or
hire more people. The same holds true for
RAMs. However, if Tom adds one more RAM,
he will also have to add at least one more labor
hour. Why? Because he has no excess labor
hours to produce another memory card. To
find out if this is profitable, Tom would add
together the shadow prices for labor hours and
RAMs, which would be $3.50, and subtract
the additional costs. If the number is positive,
then Tom should try to buy the additional re¬
sources. If the number is negative, then he
would lose money.
Notice that process hours does not have a
shadow price. Actually, the shadow price is
negative. If Tom uses more than the 1,300
hours required, he'll spend more than he has to
and his gross profit will go down.
In Tom's case, the last section, Production
Rates, is the same as Sales by Location. If Tom
had faced transportation costs, multiple selling
IBM PC PERIPHERAL PRODUCTION PROBLEM
OVERALL ECONOMIC SUMMARY:
SALES
$
3100.0
CONSUMPTIONS
$
0.0
PRODUCTION COSTS
$
0.0
TRANSPORTATION COSTS $
0.0
GROSS PROFIT $
OPTIMAL PLANT OPERATION:
3100.0
SALES BY LOCATION -
-
UPPER
LOWER
PRODUCT LOCATION
AMOUNT
LIMIT
LIMIT
INCENTIVE
MEMORY CARDS LOCAL AREA
350.0
CLOCK CARDS LOCAL AREA
100.0
RESOURCE CONSUMPTIONS -
UPPER
LOWER
AMOUNT
LIMIT
LIMIT
INCENTIVE
LABOR HOURS
1600.0
1600.0
1.50
PROCESS HOURS
1300.0
1800.0
RAMS
350.0
350.0
2.00
UPPER
LOWER
AMOUNT
LIMIT
LIMIT
INCENTIVE
PRODUCTION RATES -
-
MEMORY CARDS
350.0
CLOCK CARDS
100.0
END JOB 23:48:04
Figure 2.
locations, and so on, then it's likely that the
optimum number of cards produced would
not equal the number sold. Tom's case is a very
simple one. In real life, these other costs would
have been incorporated into the model.
Learning to use LPMaster should take an
experienced user about five hours. Building
Tom's model took approximately forty min¬
utes. Solving and printing it using LPMaster
took seventy-six seconds. Solving it manually
took two MBAs fifteen minutes (if you're not
an MBA, it might not take as long; they tend to
look for questions that aren't there).
As we've said, Tom's problem is simple.
Real LP problems may have hundreds of varia¬
bles and constraints, multiple cost structures,
process-dependent products, multiple sales lo¬
cations, distribution and delivery costs, and so
on. LPMaster can probably handle any size
problem you face. Typical uses of LP in the
business world include product planning, pro¬
duction scheduling, product mix and fluid
blending determination, portfolio manage¬
ment, and many others. Any problem where
the answer should be either a maximum or
minimum value lends itself to solution by
LP. ▲
Mark C. Herbers is a senior consultant with the St,
Louis office of Peat , Marwick, Mitchell & Co.
PC RESET
The button that IBM left out
PC RESET is a true hardware reset button
that works even when CTRL-ALT-DEL
does not.
PC RESET includes QUICKON to allow
instantaneous rebooting without
turning off power.
PC RESET saves time, wear and tear, and
frustration.
* Easy 10 minute
installation
* No circuit
board modi¬
fications
* No expansion
slot needed.
* No soldering
* Sends reset
signal directly to
the PC’s 8088
Microprocessor
List Price $89.95
Special Introductory Offer
Until June 30, 1984
$79.95 Specify PC or XT
Postpaid
MC, Visa, Check
NY Buyers add 8.25% tax
Security Microsystems
Consultants
16 Flagg Place, Suite 102 PZ
Staten Island, NY 10304
(212) 667-1019
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer ]une 1984 135
iSTEM^c i
by Alan Boyd
OS 2's installable device drivers are a rela-
H[ tively new feature in microcomputer oper-
ating systems. Previous generations of
operating systems (including PC-DOS ver¬
sion 1) interfaced peripherals through the Basic Input/Output System
(BIOS) routines. The drawback of that approach was that the operat¬
ing system itself had to be customized for each particular hardware
configuration. Problems arose when two or more peripheral devices
modified the same part of the BIOS. To untangle the mayhem, DOS 2.0
provided for installable device drivers; these allow the user to attach
“foreign" (non-IBM) hardware devices to the PC and make them work
with DOS as though they were standard elements of the system.
The provision for device drivers allows software developers to write
code for what are known as logical devices. Logical devices are not real
devices at all, but rather a set of rules that govern the input and output
to and from a class of peripherals. The actual peripheral (the physical
device as opposed to the logical one) is attached to the operating system
software via a device driver, which is customized to suit the idiosyncra¬
sies of the hardware design in question. As a result of this arrangement,
a developer of application software doesn't have to worry too much
about the characteristics of each printer or each plotter on the market;
instead he can concentrate on developing simple device commands, let¬
ting the hardware manufacturers' device drivers take care of the nitty-
gritty.
At first it might seem as though device drivers are of interest only to
hardware manufacturers. But, as it turns out, there are other uses for
device drivers that make them valuable to anyone who can master their
syntax.
In March's "System Notebook" you learned that you could add a
new device driver to your system by putting a simple statement in a file
called Config.sys. But there we only alluded to the range of devices that
could be attached.
One generally thinks of the term devices in connection with periph¬
eral items that attach to the computer by way of serial or parallel inter¬
faces — printers and modems, for example. However, there are other
types of devices — devices that have no external hardware compo¬
nent — that also work with DOS. These are the immediately obvious
input and output components of your system — the keyboard, video
screen, and I/O ports. The operating system comes with standard driv¬
ers for communicating with these devices; it also provides reserved
names for the devices themselves — Lptl:, Coml:, Con:, and so on.
One of the little-known facts about DOS 2 is that it permits you to
replace these standard device drivers with your own customized
drivers.
The best example of this facility is the Ansi.sys device driver
shipped with DOS 2. By installing this driver into your system, you can
Installable Device Drivers;
an Introduction to Ansi.sys
reconfigure each of the elements of the Con: device — the keyboard and
the screen. If you don't like the way a function key works, you can
redefine it. If you don't like the way the PC keyboard is arranged, you
can rearrange it yourself. DOS supplies all the tools. We'll discuss how
to go about this next month; now let's take a look at the background
and workings of the Ansi.sys driver.
The Ansi.sys driver gets its name from the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI), which defined a standard method whereby
certain terminal characteristics could be controlled in a somewhat co¬
hesive manner. This effort at standardization was a reaction to the
many types of intelligent terminals — IBM 3101, DEC VT100, DEC
VT52, and so on — that were appearing on the market. It was an at¬
tempt to simplify the job of software developers by supplying a com¬
mon set of rules that could be applied to any terminal.
Unfortunately, Ansi.sys met the same fate that many other commit¬
tee-derived (nondefacto) standards have met. The goals of the com¬
mittee and those of private industry were two different things, and the
idea of making each manufacturer's device behave like those of every
other manufacturer flew in the face of free enterprise. In short, very few
terminals are fully Ansi-standard (the one that conforms most closely
to the Ansi standard is Digital Equipment Corporation's VT-100).
The central concern of the ANSI committee was to define codes — in
addition to the standard ASCII control codes — that could be used to
govern cursor positioning and other terminal characteristics.
As you may know, ASCII is a code that provides for the translation
of all the standard alphanumeric characters into a binary numeric form
for storage and manipulation by the computer. In binary notation,
seven bits can represent any of 128 different values (two to the seventh
power), and that's more than ample for encoding the ninety-six stan¬
dard alphanumeric characters (twenty-six lowercase letters, twenty-six
capitals, ten numerals, and a handful of punctuation symbols). So
"normal" ASCII (normal, as distinguished from IBM's extended ASCII)
is a seven-bit code. In addition to the ninety-six alphanumerics, ASCII
provides for thirty-two "control" characters; these include such things
as carriage return, line feed, tab, and so on.
Control characters can be used in all kinds of ways, but generally
their function is to provide commands, as opposed to data, to periph¬
eral devices (that distinction is artificial, but it'll serve for present pur¬
poses). A carriage return character, for example, tells a printer or
terminal to move the printhead or cursor back to the beginning of the
current line; a tab character tells a device to move to the next pre-
established tab position, and so on.
Thirty-two characters make a pretty limited repertoire. The current
generation of printers, for example, requires a much more extensive
command syntax than can be provided by those thirty-two — and so do
all CRT terminals. The ANSI committee was attempting to provide a
136 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
standard syntax for terminals that would cover such ground as telling a
terminal where to put a character, whether or not to highlight a charac¬
ter, what color to display a character in, and so on.
The method they followed was to select a single ASCII character for
use as a command precedent. When a terminal detected this code, then,
it would know that the next sequence of characters was not data for
display but rather a command of some sort. This simple decision made
it possible to have an arbitrary number of characters and codes while
remaining in a seven-bit ASCII context.
The character they selected was the escape character, whose ASCII
value is 27. A portion of the coding language established by the ANSI
committee is available to you as the DOS device driver Ansi.sys.
To use the Ansi.sys facility, you must first "install" this device driver.
You do this by creating a file called Config.sys (or modifying that file if
it already exists) and placing it on the disk you use to boot your system.
You also have to put a copy of the file Ansi.sys on your boot disk. Your
Config.sys file needs to contain the line
DEVICE= ANSI.SYS
Thats all there is to it. Whenever you boot your system using a boot
disk that contains a Config.sys file that includes this instruction, DOS
will replace the normal console driver with the installable device driver
Ansi.sys.
(If you wish to try out the examples that follow, you'll need to in¬
stall Ansi.sys now; be sure to reboot your system after you've created
your Config.sys file, and don't forget to put Ansi.sys itself on your boot
disk, along with the Config.sys file.)
There are four classes of commands that can be interpreted and exe¬
cuted by the Ansi driver. These are cursor control, erasing, mode of
operation/attribute setting, and key reassignment. We'll examine each
of these in turn (we won't get through all of them this time) and provide
some examples of how you can use them.
First, however, we need a method of sending commands to the Ansi
driver. The problem is that all the Ansi commands start with the escape
character and you have to resort to some special tactics to send an
escape character to the console. You might think that you could just use
the copy con: filename method of creating a text file, then send the
contents of that file to the console by means of the type command. Not
so. If you hit the escape key while creating a file by way of copy con:,
DOS simply cancels the line of your file that contains the escape charac¬
ter; in other words, it excludes that line from the file.
One way to put an escape character into a text file is to use the
Debug program supplied with DOS (Debug.com), but there's a simpler
way that we'll use here to exemplify some of the Ansi commands. Our
simpler method is to use the DOS prompt command.
If you're rusty on the prompt command, you may want to look
back to the December 1983 installment of this column. Or see pages 10-
18 to 10-20 of the DOS 2 manual. Here's a quick refresher, in any case.
You may remember that the command
PROMPT Yes?
results in the replacement of the normal DOS A) prompt with Yes?.
You may also recall that the special character S, when used in a prompt
command, has a special meaning. The dollar sign lets you put various
"meta-strings" into your prompt command. $t, for example, puts the
system time into your prompt; $d gets the system date, and so on.
Last December, our original discussion of the prompt command
mentioned that $e serves to put the escape character into the prompt
string. But we didn't mention any use for this character. We'll remedy
that now. The prompt command, of course, causes a string of charac¬
ters to be sent to the screen — and hence to any device driver that re¬
places the standard console device. So this command will enable us to
send escape sequences to the Ansi driver.
The first example of the use of the Ansi.sys driver that we'll look at
provides quite a dramatic example of the use of Ansi.sys. It uses one of
the two Ansi.sys erasing sequences.
Enter the following command exactly as shown:
PROMPT $e[2J
and press return. Be sure the e is lower case and the ] is upper. (Inciden¬
tally, you don't have to have a copy of the prompt command on your
disk; the DOS 2 manual claims that prompt is an external command,
but in fact it's built into the command processor — in other words, it's
an internal command.) Don't worry about what each of the elements
stands for; we'll come back to that later.
The screen should at this point go completely blank except for a
flashing underline character at the top left comer of the screen. Now
issue a dir command and note the result. The DOS directory is listed,
but the screen goes blank again and the cursor returns to the top of the
screen as soon as the listing has been displayed.
What's happened is that you've changed the DOS prompt from the
usual A) to an abstraction that begins with an escape character. There¬
fore, every time DOS throws the prompt up on the screen, what it's
actually doing is sending an escape sequence to the Ansi.sys device
driver. This particular escape sequence erases the screen and returns the
cursor to the home position, the top left comer of the screen.
This prompt is a simple demonstration of what happens when the
Ansi.sys driver receives a command, but it serves no useful purpose — it
doesn't make much sense to have the screen go blank every time the
prompt is printed. This escape sequence would not ordinarily come
from inside the prompt but would most likely be sent to the screen by a
program. Just as a program can make the beeper beep by sending a
control-G to the screen, it can also erase the screen and return the cur¬
sor to the home position by sending out the sequence (escape) [2].
Now to the formidable task of explaining the Ansi command for¬
mat, Fortunately, the Ansi.sys driver doesn't implement the entire Ansi
specification. However, it does follow Ansi specs closely enough that
The Easy Way To
Plan Great Dinners
Let us send you our exciting
meal planning system. Try it for 2
weeks free with no cost or obli¬
gation,
Because our ad manager has a
small weakness for pizza, we call it
The Pizza Program. Actually, it’s a
complete meal planning system. It
generates delicious dinner menus
and shopping lists according to
your tastes, your diet, and your
budget.
It is a great time saver for anyone
who cooks. You can quickly print
out a new menu or shopping list for
a day, a week, or any period up to
42 days at a time. It can even re¬
mind you when it’s time to go out to
your favorite restaurant. Plus, it can
arrange your shopping list in se¬
quence according to the isles at
your local store.
Accept our 2 week free trial.
There’s no need to send any money
now. Just send the coupon. We’ll
bill you later. If you're not satisfied
for any reason, just return it and
write cancel on the invoice. What
could be more fair?
Gourmet
Software
I Gourmet Software, Dept. M-10 j
i 3583 Barley Ct., San Jose, CA 95127 i
1 OK, Rush me The Pizza Program to try for 2 weeks and bill me later for just 1
i $34.50 plus $2 shipping. (Sales tax added in California). I understand 1 can
i return it within 21 days if not satisfied and owe nothing. My PC is an □ Apple II
i Plus or lie □ I BM PC or XT □ Other _ (Needs to run Apple or
i IBM software).'
Jname _
1 ADDRESS _ _
i CITY _ STATE _ ZIP _
j PHONE ( _ _ _ In case we have a problem with
( your order and need to call you.
, P S. For faster service call our ad manager, Rich Smith at (408) 866-0887.
I ’Apple and IBM are registered trademarks of Apple Computer and International Business Machines
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 137
some sort of explanation of the Ansi standard format is in order.
The Ansi standard was deliberately designed to be as open-ended as
possible, which allows many different sets of escape sequences to be
used. Therefore, a character was needed to define the particular set that
we use on the PC. This character is /, the left square bracket. All the
escape sequences used by the Ansi.sys driver begin with (escape) [.
After these lead-in characters there follow first the parameters of the
Ansi command and then a character that identifies the command itself.
This format may seem quite confusing; however, when it's taken in the
context of the full Ansi standard, some semblance of order appears.
Cursor Control. There are a total of ten Ansi escape sequences that
can be used for cursor control, two of which are functionally identical.
The first of these— the horizontal and vertical position (HVP) com¬
mand — is used to position the cursor at a specified position on the
screen. Its format is:
< escape )[#;#f
where the first and second number signs represent the vertical and hori¬
zontal positions respectively.
If, for instance, you want the cursor to go to the end position (the
beginning of the last line on the screen) every time a DOS command is
issued and completed on, you can enter the command
PROMPT $e[25;lf
This positions the cursor in the first column position on the twenty-fifth
screen line.
This command is functionally identical to the cursor position (CUP)
command, which has the format
(escape) [#;#H
In either the HVP or CUP command, the default value for a numeric
parameter is 1. Therefore, if neither of the numeric parameters is spec¬
ified, the cursor returns to the home position.
The next four Ansi escape sequences are all related. They are cursor
up (CUU), cursor down (CUD), cursor forward (CUF), and cursor
backward (CUB). The formats they use are
Cursor Up < escape ) [ § A
Cursor Down < escape ) [ #B
Cursor Forward < escape ) [ #C
Cursor Backward < escape ) [ #D
(In each case the number sign represents a user-specified number.)
The CUU command moves the position of the cursor up from its
current position by the number of rows specified by the number sign. If
the number-sign parameter isn't included, then the default is 1. Obvi¬
ously, when it reaches the top of the screen, the cursor goes no farther;
so if the number-sign parameter specifies a larger number of rows than
is available, the excess is ignored.
CUD does exactly the opposite of CUP: It moves the cursor down
the screen a specified number of rows, until it reaches the bottom of the
screen. Again, the default is 1.
The CUF command does exactly as you would expect— it shifts the
cursor a specified number of columns to the right of its current position,
until it reaches the rightmost column of the screen. And CUB, the an¬
tithesis of the CUF, moves the cursor a specified number of columns to
the left.
These four Ansi escape sequences are a boon to anyone writing
screen-intensive software. The one drawback to the use of these se¬
quences is that they are relatively slow in execution, compared to direct
screen addressing. However, the major benefit of portability across sev¬
eral different manufacturers' computers in many cases outweighs this
problem.
The next pair of Ansi escape sequences are what are known as the
device-status report (DSR) and the cursor-position report (CPR). These
two escape sequences are a matched pair; when a program sends the
Ansi.sys driver a device-status report, the driver sends back a cursor-
position report.
We can demonstrate this easily using our prompt command again,
but you should be forewarned that this example will cause your PC to
go into a loop from which you can exit only by rebooting. We will turn
the DOS prompt into a device-status report so that every time the
prompt is sent to the screen the Ansi.sys driver will respond by sending
back a cursor-position report. When the CPR has been received, the
prompt will again be thrown up on the screen, again sending out a DSR
and requesting Ansi.sys to send back a CPR. Meanwhile, the cursor
position will move down the screen, causing a different CPR to be sent
back with each iteration— until the cursor gets to the bottom line.
Try the following to see the results for yourself. Since it will scroll
down the screen so quickly, you may first want to turn on your printer
so that you can capture the screen output. Whenever you have seen
enough, reboot your computer.
First of all, erase the screen and return the cursor to home by typing
the DOS els command. In Ansi terms, the cursor is now in row 1. Then
issue the following command, which sends the Ansi escape sequence
for a device-status report to the Ansi.sys device driver
PROMPT $e[6n
WORRIED?
Your data is in danger
without the powerful file recovery
routines in the Norton Utilities.
Protect your data
with the essential file recovery routines
* Recover erased files
* Recover from damaged diskettes
* Recover scrambled data
Dozens of extra functions
included in the Norton Utilities
Disk labeling
Screen control
Sound, timing, file printing and more!
SNOOPY? A
Explore your disks
and learn the mysteries of disk
data with the Norton Utilities.
Explore your disks
with the powerful and educational snooping tools
* map disk formats
* Browse through all files
* Explore and patch all disks
Works on ALL models of IBM
Works on ALL versions of DOS!
“Nothing short of superb!’’
— P.C. Age
You can’t afford to be without them!
x The Norton Utilities Power Tools for the IBM/PC
Available from ComputerLand, other dealers, and directly from me for $80.00.
Peter Norton 2210 Wilshire Blvd., #186, Santa Monica, CA 90403
pSfl PHONE ORDERS — (213) 399-3948 |tt||
138 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
You should immediately notice that a stream of characters appears on
the screen, rapidly scrolling downward. If you capture these charac¬
ters, you'll find that they look like this:
\
[04;01R
\
[06;01R
\
[08;01R
\
[10;0lR
and so on, until they stabilize at
\
[25;0lR
\
[25;0lR
The CPR comes back in the form
(escape) [#;#R
where the first number sign represents the row number and the second
number sign stands for the column number of the current cursor posi¬
tion. Of course, if you try to type an escape character at the command
line, DOS will issue a backslash character ( \ ) and issue a line feed
to drop the cursor position to the next line. So much for this rather
bizarre example.
The DSR/CPR combination is handy for writing software where
the current cursor position is not known. A program can learn the co¬
ordinates of the cursor by sending out a DSR; Ansi.sys responds by
sending the cursor position back in a CPR. Since this information is
sent back through the standard device — in this case the screen— it can
be filtered or redirected at will.
The last pair of escape sequences in the cursor positioning group are
another matched pair — this time known as the save cursor position
(SCP) and restore cursor position (RCP) sequences.
When an SCP sequence is sent to Ansi.sys, the current position of
the cursor is saved in a special location. If, at a later time, you want to
return the cursor to those coordinates, you simply issue a restore cursor
position sequence.
The save cursor position escape sequence is
< escape )[s
and the restore cursor position escape sequence is
< escape )[u
This combination is really handy in situations where a screen has to be
abandoned — say, to bring up some help information— and subse¬
quently re-created.
The last set of Ansi escape sequences we'll look at this month are the
two erasing sequences. The first of these, the one we explored earlier
in this column, is called — what else? — the erase-in-display (ED) se¬
quence. It clears the screen and sends the cursor to the home position,
so its effect is more or less the same as that of the DOS els command. As
we saw earlier, the format of this escape sequence is
< escape )[2J
The companion escape sequence is the erase-in-line (EL) sequence,
which simply erases from the cursor position to the end of the line. This
sequence takes the form
(escape) [k
These functions — positioning the cursor on the screen; moving it back¬
ward, forward, up, and down; deleting the screen and homing the cur¬
sor; deleting to the end of a line; saving and restoring the cursor
position; and having the system tell you where the cursor is — are all of
the basic functions required in screen editing. By making use of them
from within a program, you could build a rudimentary text editor. Al¬
though such an editor would not be very fast, it would be small indeed.
It would also be portable to other machines with Ansi capabilities, A
-SHOPPING INVESTMENT-
PORTFOLIO SOFTWARE?
The STOCK PORTFOLIO SYSTEM offers more complete financial
monitoring data than other investment programs available
at anywhere near our price! This exciting system by Smith
Micro is available for the IBM PC, Apple ll/lle, or native Apple
III. When ordering please specify which program you wish.
COMPARE
THE LEADERS!
DOW JONES
MARKET MANAGER:
1 Portfolio Management
2 Menu Driven
3 Porttolio Valuation
Report
4 Profit & Loss Statement
5 Automatic Update via
Dow Jones Retrieval®
Service
6 Requires TWO Disk
Drives
Suggested 6000 oo
Retail Price: YftTTi
SMITH MICRO
STOCK PORTFOLIO
SYSTEM:
1 Portfolio Management
2 Menu Driven
3 Porttolio Valuation
Report
4 Profit & Loss Statement
5 Automatic Update via
Dow Jones Retrieval1
Service
6 Requires only ONE
Disk Drive
7 Easy Manual Update
0 Includes C.D.'s, Money
Markets, and other
■■Cash Investments
SMITH MICRO
SOFTWARE
9 Dividend Income
Report
10 Interest Income/
Expense Report
11 Timing Notices:
Securities going Long
Term, Dividends/Bond
Interest Due, Options
Expiring
12 Margin Accounting
13 Return on Investment
Calculations
14 Position Averaging
15 Covered Options
16 Save/Recall
Historical Quotes
17 Compute Investment
Net Worth
ONLY: $185.°°
P.O. BOX 7137
HUNTINGTON BEACH
CALIFORNIA 9261 5
See your dealer. Or send a
check for $185 + $2 shipping
(Calif, residents add $11.10)
IBM PC Is a trademark of international Business Machines Apple trademork of
Apple Computers Inc.
Dow Jones News Retrieval and Market Manager are a registered trodemark of Dow
Jones ft Co., Inc.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 139
Volume III Issue I June 1984
Today’s
Weather
Softalk
A Peachtree Grows in Manhattan
(and Santa Monica)
eluded as well. MSA's widely
used S/370 mainframe account¬
ing and financial products have
been upgraded to adapt to the
neiv micro environment.
When asked what other
mainframe applications and
products could be used with De¬
cision Manager s
3270 link, Imlay
replied, "Any
S/370 pro¬
printers often end up being
transcribed to other media by
art departments or vendors— a
time-consuming and often ex¬
pensive process.
Window movements can be
accomplished using either a
mouse (several models are sup¬
ported) or the PCs cursor
keys, and the system
makes use
of
NEW YORK— On April 26,
during press conferences held
simultaneously at Manhattan's
Hclmslcy Palace and the Mira
mar Hotel in Santa Monica,
California, MSA /Peachtree an¬
nounced a gaggle of new soft¬
ware products for a wide
variety of personal computers.
The twenty-five new products
from the Atlanta, Georgia,
company are targeted at the
home, educational, and busi¬
ness marketplaces.
It wasn't much of a surprise
that the flagship product of the
new line is Decision Manager,
Peachtree's version of an inte¬
grated product for the IBM PC
that includes spreadsheet, word
processing, and database capa¬
bilities, "And, oh yes," quipped
MSA chairman John Imlay "it
has windows, too."
Peachtree's approach to
product integration has an un¬
usual twist or two. Decision
Manager includes a small ver¬
sion of the PeachText 5000 word
processing system designed to
allow a Decision Manager user
to write a draft report. Files are
fully compatible with the full-
fledged word processing prod¬
uct, allowing an administrative
staff person to put finishing
touches on the report using
Peach Text 5000 s spelling checker,
the Random House electronic
thesaurus, and the PeachText
print formatting program
Also included in Decision
Manager is IBM 3270 terminal
emulation, which permits users
to communicate directly with
IBM mainframes via existing bi¬
synchronous corporate net¬
works. Asynchronous com¬
munication capability is in-
gram that transmits its data to a
3270 terminal, and that's virtu¬
ally ail of them." The product
has not yet been implemented
on the 32 70- PC, but Peachtree
representatives at the news com
ference didn't think doing it
would be a problem.
Decision Manager has the
same type of screen and printer
graphics available in competi¬
tive products but adds some¬
thing new to the competitive
mix by producing presentation-
quality graphics on a variety of
plotters. Corporate customers
will welcome this trend because
graphics produced by computer
both pop-up menus and icons to
help users decide what to do. Up
to twenty windows can be
defined during a Decision Man¬
ager session, and any ten of
them can be on the screen at the
same time, A "state" option pro¬
vides Decision Manager with a
long-term memory, permitting
users to leave the program and
return to it later at exactly the
same place, without having to
recall data or spreadsheet tem¬
plates.
For all this, Peachtree's new
window system seems a little
less powerful than those of its
competitors. Decision Manager
does not automatically update
all the users windows at the
same time, which means the
user has to move data manually
from one screen to another; in
this respect, the Peachtree sys¬
tem resembles the 3270-PC win¬
dow system. The strategy is less
powerful for any one applica¬
tion, but it will allow Peachtree
to implement windows in its
other products— a goal that's
being pursued vigorously back
in Atlanta.
Pricing for Decision Man¬
ager is a little new and different,
too. The product is scheduled to
retail for $825, but buyers dur¬
ing the first ninety days can
have it for $625, More interest¬
ing is the upgrade policy. Every
user will be able to upgrade De¬
cision Manager at any time for
$150 plus the old copy. The first
upgrade is free, and the policy
will stay in effect for five years
after initial purchase.
"But the biggest difference of
all," said Imlay, "is that we'll be¬
gin shipping Decision Manager
on June 15th — and that's no ba-
zanga/' (Readers familiar with
Imlay's storytelling style will
not wonder wTiat bazanga is;
others may hazard a guess.)
Decision Manager users will
need at least 256K for their PCs.
The program will run on a
standard PC with floppy disks,
but an XT (or a PC equipped
with a hard disk) is strongly rec¬
ommended by Peachtree. DOS
2.0 is required for XT users, but
PC users can use DOS 1.1 if
their hard disks are compatible.
A color/graphics display is re¬
quired for Decision Managers
windowing system.
Peachtree's other new of-
140 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
A Peachtree Grows in Manhattan
ferings also have the ' no ba-
zanga" delivery date, are availa¬
ble for a variety of computers,
and include more business ap¬
plications as well as programs
for the home and education
markets.
Peachtree's Back to Basics
accounting system is probably
the most exciting of the new
business offerings for PCs. The
three-program package is an in¬
expensive, full-function ac¬
counting system designed for
small business users wanting to
move their accounting from the
backs of envelopes to both sides
of a floppy disk.
Designed to run on PCs, the
Forth-based system includes
general ledger, accounts pay¬
able, and accounts receivable
programs that will enable users
to maintain and monitor the
financial status of their opera™
tlons, Outputs include full in™
come statements and balance
sheets, trial balances, and a va¬
riety of cash journals. Users are
also provided with an account¬
ing tutorial to help them learn
the more formal rules of ac¬
counting necessary for a com¬
puter-based system .
Back to Basics provides many
accounting tools more often
associated with corporate-style
systems, includiog automatic
calculation of accounts payable
discounts and aging of receiv¬
ables, along with small-busi-
ness-oriented features, such as
cash register reconciliation. The
accounts receivable module will
produce statements (including a
variety of dunning notices), and
accounts payable will write the
users checks. All three pro¬
grams provide extensive finan¬
cial reports.
Up to ten company depart¬
ments can be included in an im¬
plementation of Back to Basics ,
and users can supply a variety
of financial terms for both cus¬
tomers and vendors. Adminis¬
trative chores, such as mailing-
label printing, can also be done
with the system.
The Back to Basics account¬
ing system will run on a FC/r,
but the general ledger program
requires an expansion chassis
because two disk drives are re¬
quired (the demo model at the
news conference was equipped
with Tecmar s box). The system
is also available for Apple II,
Atari 800, and Commodore 64
computers; a Macintosh version
will be available at a later date.
The PC version comes as a
package, with all three pro¬
grams, priced at $295. Versions
for other computers (including
PC/r) are priced separately at
$95 each.
Two other products rounded
out Peachtree's new business
offerings. A new fixed-assets ac¬
counting program, which offers
both book and a wide variety of
tax depreciation accounting
methods, brings to eight the
number of accounting packages
in the company's integrated
business accounting series. An¬
other new product, Peach Plan,
gives users a budgeting and
forecasting tool with spread¬
sheet capabilities. Peach Plan in¬
terfaces with Peachtree's general
ledger program, providing PC
users with a "budget versus ac¬
tual" analysis tool.
Peach tree s new Home Soft¬
ware Library includes programs
for all age groups The pack¬
aged product is available for the
PC and the PC/r, but PC/r is the
real target for the library, "We
want to put an end to the com¬
plaint that there's no home soft¬
ware available for PC/r," said
Imlay.
Programs for adult family
members include Home Ac -
countant for money and budget
management. Home Analyst
for spreadsheet-style planning
in the home, and Home Writer
for firing off letters to the editor,
Howe Writer will also be useful
for studenL homework assign¬
ments, but other products are
more education- anti games^ori-
ented, These include Basic Tutor
(for learning how to program),
Compit-Read (for improving
reading skills), Contpu-Spelt
(designed to increase spelling
vocabularies ), and Prisoner Ad¬
venture Game, (described as
'intellectual entertainment'' for
all ages).
Peachtree's efforts to pro¬
duce the Home Software Li¬
brary may help solve the home-
oriented software problem for
PC/r, but the offering is pack¬
aged in such a way that it could
be difficult to sell. The Home
Software Library will be availa¬
ble in a $395 package that in¬
cludes all seven programs.
Imlay noted that, sold sepa¬
rately, the library would cost
over $800, but it s hard to imag¬
ine adult-only families being
thrilled at having to buy Pris¬
oner Adventure to use Home
Accountant. Later discussions
with an MSA educational soft¬
ware marketing manager re¬
vealed that Compu-fiend and
Compu-Spell will be available
separately, but prices aren't yet
firm,
Peachtree announced several
new educational programs, but
all save one are not available for
the PC or PCjr The new Apple
Il-based products provide edu¬
cational help tor reading, writ¬
ing, vocabulary, and poetry,
along with mathematics and
strategy games. Some even in¬
clude voice synthesis to help
students learn such things as po¬
etic meter. Only the new Writ¬
ing Skills program is available
for PC users.
The education programs are
products of EduVVare, which
was acquired by MSA only last
year, and an MSA spokesperson
attributed the lack of PC -based
products to Edu Ware's Apple 11
orientation. She added that sev¬
eral of EduWare's existing prod¬
ucts will be ported to the PC 'as
soon as possible' and that some
will be ready by this fall.
During the news conference,
MSA executive vice president
Dennis Vohs voiced the compa¬
ny s view that the key to success
in the microcomputer software
industry is a broad product base
combined with strong market¬
ing and management skills,
MSA is running fast to build on
the product base it has in the
IBM mainframe world.
When asked why Peachtree
had decided to announce so
many new products at once,
Vohs replied, "We've never had
a hit record in this business, but
we don't want to need one.”
A possibly more realistic
view was offered by another
MSA executive: "If you're going
to spend this much money,
you'd better get a lot out of it."
The Helmsley Palace Hotel is
many wonderful things, but in¬
expensive isn't one of them, A
5of talk for the IBM Personal Computer June 19&4 141
Phoenix Software Offers ROM BIOS to OEMs
NEW YORK — Phoenix Soft¬
ware has announced legal stress
relief for the makers of PC-com¬
patible computers. At a press
conference held May 9 at the
new Grand Hyatt Hotel, the
Norwood, Massachusetts-based
systems engineering company
unwrapped PC-Compatible
ROM BIOS , a product de¬
scribed as a totally PC-com¬
patible operating system- PC-
Compatible ROM BIOS will be
available on an OEM basis to
any current or potential manu¬
facturer of PC-compatible com¬
puters.
Phoenix claims that its prod¬
uct, which includes both PC
and XT support, is functionally
identical to the ROM BIOS pro¬
grams in the PC 11 (25&K
motherboard) version of the
IBM PC. BIOS routines for PCjr
and the 3270-PC are not pro¬
vided.
For a one-time charge of
£290,000, the package offers the
ROM BIOS routines, a PC-
DOS-compatible version of
MS-DOS 2.11, a version of Mi¬
crosoft GWBasic that "resem¬
bles" IBM's Basic A, and several
PODOS-compatible utilities. It
is up to customers to install the
BIOS programs in ROM and in¬
terface them to their own hard¬
ware.
Possibly the product's most
unusual feature is a liability in¬
surance policy. Phoenix has re¬
tained the Hartford Group of
Insurance Companies to insure
customers against possible cop¬
yright infringement suits from
IBM. The Hartford Group pol¬
icy provides up to $2 million to
cover defense costs and finan¬
cial liability should IBM sue a
Phoenix BIOS customer for
copyright infringement. Cus¬
tomers can participate in the in¬
surance plan for a "four figure"
pi emi um .
BIOS stands for Basic Input/
Output System, The programs
in the BIOS control the basic
operation of the PC and its in¬
teractions wuth the outside
world; they provide the inter-
face between the PCs Intel 6088
processor and all connected in¬
put and output devices, includ¬
ing disk drives, video displays,
keyboards, and printers.
"Without this important
piece of firmware, a machine
can never be truly compatible
[with the PC], yet several manu¬
facturers who have created their
own compatible ROM BIOS
have been sued," said Phoenix
president Neil Colvin,
IBM has in fact sued several
vendors recently for infringing
on the copyright of the PCs
ROM BIOS programs, IBM has
claimed that the BIOS programs
contained in the other vendors'
machines so closely resemble
those of the PC that they may
even have been copied directly.
An earlier case, in which Apple
Computer charged Franklin
Computer with a similar form
of copyright infringement, was
settled out of court.
(David Grais, of the Wall
Street law firm of Grais & Ri¬
chards, said that Phoenix had
approached IBM and offered
them the opportunity to exam¬
ine the programs, "We wanted
them to be satisfied the pro¬
grams were not copies," he said.
IBM declined the offer, accord¬
ing to Grais, because they re¬
ceive many similar requests and
couldn't honor all of them. Rep¬
resentatives of IBM's Entry Sys¬
tems Division in Boca Raton,
Florida, declined to comment
on the Phoenix announcement.)
How is Phoenix able to guar¬
antee that PC -compatible ven¬
dors using its BIOS routines
won't be subject to copyright
infringement claims from IBM?
Obviously, Phoenix can't guar¬
antee that IBM won't sue, but
customers may be reassured to
know that the Hartford Group,
a major force in the insurance
industry, is willing to provide li¬
ability and legal cost coverage.
We asked Phoenix Software
to send us a copy of their Hart¬
ford Group policy so we could
find out more about this un¬
usual insurance coverage. To get
an expert opinion, we asked
Thomas R, Meaney, president
of a Wall Street insurance bro¬
kerage, to study the policy.
Meaney affirmed that the
policy insures against financial
liability and legal costs in case of
a copyright infringement suit,
which is exactly what it claims
to do. He also noted that all par¬
ticipants in the writing of the
policy are "quality" companies
in the insurance business and
can be relied on, Meaney was
not sure of the adequacy of the
£2 million maximum until it was
explained that IBM had not, so
far at least, asked for any finan¬
cial damage settlements in their
PC suits.
Then came the big but*
"But they [Hartford] obvi¬
ously consider this to be a big
risk," said Meaney. "It's almost
as if they expect a suit right
away."
How did he reach this con¬
clusion? "The £37,000 aggregate
premium is extremely high for
only £2 million in coverage, he
said. "Besides, there's a £50,000
deductible on any incident,
which makes the effective pre¬
mium £87,000 if there's a suit."
Meaney noted the possibility
that lack of insurance experi¬
ence with this type of policy
could have affected the size of
the premium, but he still felt the
premium was out of line.
To meet its objective of
achieving functional PC-com-
patibility without copying the
PC's programs (which are
published in IBM's Technical
Reference manual), Phoenix di¬
vided its development team into
three groups. A designer wrote
the functional specifications,
based on the Technical Refer¬
ence manual program listings; a
geographically separated team
of technicians tested the code
for functional compatibility;
and a lone programmer, pre¬
sumably in some remote cabin
in the Berkshires, wrote the pro¬
grams. Phoenix's programmer
had no previous experience with
IBM PCs or with the 8088/86
family of Intel processors. He
was, according to Colvin, a gen¬
uine PC "virgin" whose past mi¬
cro experience mostly involved
the ill-fated Texas Instruments
99/4A.
All communication among
members of the development
team was carried out in writing,
and a careful log was kept. "It's
a stack of paper about five feet
high," said Colvin, "which
ought to make any court feel
they have enough evidence to
legitimize SK worth of code,"
Phoenix Software is better
known among systems engi¬
neering and programming cus¬
tomers than among PC users.
Their work has involved inter¬
facing versions of M5-DOS on
various PC-compatible micros,
and they have a line of highly
technical products that includes
a sophisticated linkage editor
and symbolic debugger for
large-scale PC programs. Cus¬
tomers for their systems pro¬
gramming work have included
Microsoft, Compaq, Digital
Equipment Corporation, Texas
Instruments, Otrona, Sony,
Victor, Siemens, Wang, and
others in the PC-compatible and
8088/86-based micro bu¬
siness. A
142 June 1984 Softnlk for the IBM Personal Computer
Marketalk Reviews
Job Cost for the IBM PC
fob Cost for the IBM PC is a versatile, easily tailored, self-
contained job-costing system that simplifies job estimation
and bidding and provides many useful reports to track job costs. Con¬
tractors and others in job-costing businesses will find this program easy
to learn and use.
The package comes in a three-ring binder and slipcase. There are no
keyboard overlays or quick reference cards, but you won't miss these
amenities once you use the software.
The manual is easy to comprehend, even for computer neophytes. It
contains a step-by-step demonstration that shows how to input data
and print reports. For a novice, this should take four or five hours to
complete. After a user knows how the system works, he or she learns
how to create or adapt current job-costing books to the system. Screen
illustrations, sample reports, and various appendixes also are included.
With two disk drives, up to one thousand accounts can be defined
and divided among four areas: general ledger accounts, vendors, job
codes, and work codes. You're limited to four thousand estimate ac¬
counts, which are individual job codes with associated work codes.
For example, if you create 100 job codes, you can assign as many as
forty work codes to each job. The manual indicates that up to 2,000
accounts and 3,000 estimate accounts can be managed by the XT.
The program is menu-driven, with plenty of prompts. Full use is
made of the function keys, and each program disk has its own main
menu that allows access to various features of the system. Screen dis¬
play formats are excellent, and a numbering system lets you know
which main menu and submenu you're in if you forget.
Before you can create your own set of books, you need to gather
data about your company's jobs, progress reporting systems, and ac¬
counting requirements. The program provides various worksheets to
help you accumulate and organize this information. General ledger ac¬
counts, the company configuration, work-code structuring, job pur¬
chase prompting, and vendors are all programmed into the system.
Job transactions are recorded in five journals: cash receipts, job pur¬
chases, inventory transfers, labor costs, and a general journal. Entries
to the journals can be batched (up to fifty at a time), an option that
gives the user a chance to review input before writing it to the journal.
The journals and the general ledger can be displayed on-screen or sent
to the printer.
At the end of the accounting period, you can post each journal to
the appropriate general ledger accounts with a single command. Then,
after printing the financial statements for your records, you can close
the books with an end-of-period command. At the end of the fiscal
year, income and expenses for closed jobs are zeroed by an end-of-year
command.
The program offers a choice between reporting job income by the
completed-job method or the percentage-of-completion method. You
can record actual quantities to journals as well as the dollar amounts.
One of the best features of the Job Cost system is its ability to re¬
calculate and update automatically the unit costs based on the actual
costs incurred as they are reported. This creates an up-to-date file for
future job estimating.
Many good text reports are available with ]ob Cost. Formats are
straightforward and can be viewed on-screen or printed. The job esti¬
mate report shows all the associated unit rates, quantities, and dollar
amounts for all work codes.
A job status report compares actual with estimated costs. For per¬
centage-of-completion jobs, the job status report also shows recalculat¬
ed projected costs based on the actual cost to date and the reported
percentage-of-completion. There's a monthly consolidated profit-and-
loss statement for all jobs in the system and a monthly income and
expense statement for each job.
One shortcoming of the system is the absence of charts or graphs in
the reports. Some businesses may like to display cost variances with
graphics. All in all, though. Job Cost for the IBM PC is an impressive
automated job-costing system that doesn't require that you be a com¬
puter whiz.
— Douglas ]. Ascoli
Job Cost , BPI Systems (3423 Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78705; 512-454-2801).
$795.
Galactic Gladiators
What's the real message of Star Warsl Theoretically, it has
something to do with man's spirit being stronger than the
technological wonders he creates. But most people couldn't care less.
They just want to watch Luke and Han zoom around shooting people.
There's the real message: Slash! Bang! Smash! Powie!
Strategic Simulations has produced a game in the same spirit. Or
rather, they have translated said game from the Apple. The PC version,
written in Basic, is slower than the original, and it features blocky
graphics and discordant music. But the slash-bang-smash-powie is still
there.
Now you too can enjoy an afternoon of killing aliens. And what
aliens! There are fourteen varieties. The Cygians are cute, the Froglo-
dytes grotesque, the Zorcons mysterious and sinister. The
Oranguphins are just plain weird. The Mutants' touch is always fatal.
The Gorsai are greedy mercenaries who can change sides in the middle
of a fight.
If you tire of killing aliens, you can pick an alien race and start
sniping at the humans. Or fight a different alien race. Or mix species
and take all comers.
The weaponry of Star Wars is there too: laser swords, phasers, dis¬
rupters, stun wands, and lots of other slash-bang-smash-powie.
Different races tend to use different weapons. A little Koraci, for exam¬
ple, can't use anything heavier than a vibro knife, whereas a hulking
Dulbian can use a heavy disrupter. A single blow with the disrupter
would almost certainly kill the Koraci, whereas it would take several
slashes with a vibro knife to dismember the Dulbian. On the other
hand, the Koraci has more dexterity than the Dulbian and may get in
several slashes while the enemy flails at the air.
In addition to the usual weapons, there are some strange ones. A
"gemstone," for example, is a homing missile that zeros in on its target
and explodes. A "heat ray gun" is a sort of inverse neutron bomb that
destroys walls but leaves people standing.
The scenery also recalls Star Wars — bars, mazelike corridors, space¬
ship interiors, alien ruins. You can fight at close range, medium range.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 143
or long range. If none of the standard arenas pleases you, you may
create your own or have the computer create one randomly.
In addition, the game has its role-playing aspect. Every time a char¬
acter hits somebody, he has a chance of increasing his skill. Assuming
he survives, he gets better and better with his chosen weapons. Since
characters can be saved to disk, you can play your favorite team over
and over. (The game can also be saved.)
Perhaps the best feature is the player s freedom to manipulate the
elements. You can create any team you like and fight anywhere you like
against anyone you like. For many gamers, exhausting all those possi¬
bilities will be a long, pleasant process.
— Forrest Johnson
Galactic Gladiators, Tom Reamy (IBM version by Paul Reisberg), Strategic Sim¬
ulations (883 Stierlin Road, Mountain View, CA 94043; 415-964-1353). Requires
color /graphics adapter. $39.95.
□ Multi-Job
Multi-Job is a multitasking program that permits the PC to
run up to nine programs at once. It divides the computers
memory to hold the separate programs, with one program switched to
the foreground for keyboard input and display while the others func¬
tion as background tasks. The keyboard and display are attached only
to the program running in the foreground. The alt key and a digit from
the numeric keypad bring a task from another partition to the fore¬
ground.
Ordinarily, your computer is waiting for you or you are waiting for
your computer. Programs such as word processors and spreadsheets
spend most of their time waiting for keyboard input or for the printer
to catch up. Other programs, such as updates of inventory records or
lengthy sorts, are computer-intensive. Once begun, they require little
input and leave users waiting for the program to finish.
Multi-Job serves as the traffic cop, telling the programs to stop and
go. It lets the PC work on computer-intensive chores during those mi¬
croseconds while you are at the keyboard or a character is on its way to
the printer.
Multi-Job's partitions can also serve as a parking place for programs
not currently running. A communication package can rest in one parti¬
tion ready to go on-line, or DOS can be standing by to format a disk or
read a directory.
When a program is operating back in the bushes, Multi-Job main¬
tains an area of memory to receive screen input in place of the video
display. Background tasks can be set to discard video display or to sus¬
pend work until they are brought to the foreground, where the screen
will be restored. If a program requires keyboard input, its operation is
suspended until it is brought into the foreground.
Several programs that need the 8088 can share the processor while
they are background tasks. All segments can share equally, or priority
can be given to the foreground task.
Multi-Job defaults to two partitions, with 64K in task 2 and the rest
of the memory dedicated to task 1. The number of partitions can be
specified and their sizes set when Multi-Job is invoked, or it can be done
with an Autoexec.bat file.
Electronic disks that are set before Multi-Job is called are "global"
devices, and all segments can use them. Electronic disks set from within
a partition are "local" devices and can't be accessed by other partitions.
Generally, two or three programs are all that should be attempted at
any one time or the computer becomes slothful. The recommended
minimum is 48K for each partition; since the program requires space to
run, 19K is needed for DOS, and 4.5K is consumed as Multi-Job over¬
head. The first partition requires an additional 3.5K to hold the Multi-
Job management system.
For all the beauty of the Multi-Job idea, the program has a few
warts. Multi-Job is on a copy-protected disk and uses a customizing
program to produce a copyable version of Multi-Job. The difficulty
here is that only one master copy can be made: You must choose be¬
tween DOS 1.1 and 2.0. Furthermore, in an effort to avoid piracy,
Starware has designed Multi-Job' s master disk to operate only on the
IBM PC for which it was configured. It apparently looks at the equip¬
ment switches and makes them part of its initialization check. If you
add memory or peripherals, Multi-Job won't work anymore.
Multi-Job's key commands are simple enough, but it's up to you to
keep track of where you are and what you're doing in each partition.
Users are on their own in making sure that the proper disk is in the
drive required in any particular segment, for Multi-Job makes no check
and gives no prompt for the disk. One could find oneself in serious
trouble with open files written to by the wrong program, and things are
bound to become messy if two programs are sending data to the
printer.
Multi-Job doesn't have the ability to move data from a program in
one partition to a program in another, and individual partitions can't
be rebooted under Multi-Job. A reset is an all-or-nothing affair, and
unless a program has an exit command, it will have to wait until all the
tasks are completed.
Multi-Job modifies certain interrupt routines, and this makes it in¬
compatible with software that also depends on modifications. 1-2-3
modifies DOS and writes directly to the screen, so it won't work with
Multi-Job. Other programs, such as SuperCalcl, have to finish writing
their data to the screen before being moved to another partition or the
updated display won't be there on return. It's best to make a trial run
with any given combination of programs under Multi-Job before be¬
ginning serious work.
The concept of multitasking promises full use of the PC's capabili¬
ties, but Multi-Job could use a little more error-checking to keep opera¬
tors out of trouble. At present, two or three pieces of selected software
can work well together in Multi-Job at any given time. With a few more
safety features, this frog could become a real prince.
'—Dian Crayne
Multi-Job , Starware (2000 K Street N.W., Washington DC 20006; 202-331-
9933). $159.
□ c-window
Debugging aids are almost mandatory for large program¬
ming projects in any language. Using a machine-code level
tool, such as IBM's Debug, requires specialized knowledge and isn't
really adequate for trouble-shooting programs compiled from high-
level languages, c-window is a tool for testing and debugging C pro¬
grams at the source level; it's designed for use in conjunction with the C
compiler from c-systems. c-window allows you to debug your pro¬
grams at the symbolic level by using C program variable names, ex¬
pressions, structures, and constructs. There is no need to look at or deal
with machine registers or actual memory addresses.
To include the debug facility in a program, you select the — w option
at compile time. This causes the compiler to construct a table of func¬
tion and variable names and to save other data needed by the debugger.
At link time, the debugger library code is added, resulting in an execut¬
able user program containing the debugger executive.
Although the debugger code resides in its own code segment, its ta¬
bles do consume some of the user program's data space. A program
that ordinarily fits into a given amount of memory, therefore, may not
fit when linked to the debug facility; functions with many variables
may need a table so large that there is insufficient space left over for the
debugger.
When you run a program the debugger installed, your screen is di¬
vided into three horizontal windows (provided you're using an IBM-
compatible screen).
The top window is reserved for interaction with you, the program¬
mer; this is where you enter debug commands and see responses from
the system.
144 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
The middle window is for input and output interactions with the
program being debugged; this window occupies only five lines of the
screen, so the debugger automatically maps all program input and out¬
put to scroll through this area. If your program uses direct cursor-posi¬
tioning commands, these will not be remapped into the middle
window. Unfortunately, they may cause text in the upper or lower win¬
dows to be overwritten. Such text would also scroll, along with each
window.
The lower window contains a display of the source language state¬
ments (if the source file is available) currently being executed. As state¬
ments are executed, this window scrolls to show the current and next
few statements. The current line is prefixed with the source-code-file
line number. This handy facility can reduce your need for printed list¬
ings when you've made minor source-code changes.
Consider the following main function:
main (argc,argv)
int argc;
char *argc[];
{
When this program is run, the debugger will wait at the program's
entry point (the first executable statement). The d command displays
variables in several different formats; d argc displays the value of argc
in hexadecimal. If the program were run as PROG. Pi, the value of argc
would be 2 and argv[l] would point to the string Pi. ds argvfl] displays
the string pointed to by argv[l]. Variables can be displayed in decimal
or hexadecimal, as characters or strings, and in byte and word hex
formats. Unfortunately, the default is hex. Most users would probably
prefer decimal .
The s command allows you to step through the program one C state¬
ment at a time. At any step, you may display or modify any variable.
At each step, the current function name and line number are displayed.
The t command allows you to trace through a series of single steps.
Several types of breakpoints are possible (a breakpoint indicates
some position within the program at which the user wants to inspect
certain variables), g func,46 causes the program to run until it gets to
line 46 within function func ; line 46 will not be executed. This type of
breakpoint is cleared once it has been performed. More permanent
breakpoints can be set at any function /line combination. Breakpoints
can be set to break each time they are encountered, after they have been
encountered a specific number of times, or when a user-defined condi¬
tion has been met; this last option is extremely handy. Breakpoints can
be listed and can be cleared individually or collectively. Another nice
feature is the fact that you can type any key to return to command
mode; that's great for stopping runaway programs.
Up to five debug command macros can be defined. These macros,
which can be set to execute during step, trace, and breakpoint opera¬
tions, spare you the trouble of reentering lengthy display commands
that you use regularly. Macros can be displayed and cleared individu¬
ally or as a group.
All local variables can be displayed by way of the l command; their
stack and data segment offsets are also shown. This feature is useful for
monitoring the use of stack and data space. External variables also can
be displayed. The p command identifies the function and line number
where the debugger is currently positioned, and the c command reveals
the source code statement at a given line number.
c-window has a few annoying drawbacks. Although both uppercase
and lowercase commands are accepted and correctly interpreted, the
command syntax is not quite free-format. The command set is not
orthogonal and could be improved upon. The help command scrolls
the help text through the top window, and the top part scrolls off; the
text could be rearranged so that this wouldn't happen. The g command
typically causes the program to run to completion, at which time it
exits to the operating system; it would be better if it returned to the
debugger instead, as Debug.com does. Currently, you're required a
breakpoint to prevent exit to the system.
These are minor irritations, however. The only significant deficiency
is c-window’s inability to generate hard copy of trace data; you have to
use print-screen, and that's not workable for dumping programs of
significant complexity.
c-window is simple to use and powerful. It's priced a little high, per¬
haps, in comparison to the c-systems compiler, but, considering the
labor- and time-intensive alternative, you may find it paying for itself
in a short time.
Telephone support is included.
—Rex Jaeschke
c-windoiv, c-systems (Box 3253, Fullerton, CA 92634; 714-637-5362). $195. Re¬
quires compiler, which also costs $195.
□ Financial Planning for Multiplan and the IBM PC
In Financial Planning for Multiplan and the IBM PC, Expert
Systems has created eighteen Multiplan template files to han¬
dle elementary and frequently used financial formulas. Categorized
into six main functions, the files structure the user's analysis of basic
financial analysis. The templates, referred to as "calculators," perform
compound growth calculations, annuities, discounted cash flows,
profit planning, depreciation schedules, real estate finance, and linear
regression and basic statistical measurements of a population. Because
the files are designed as templates, the flexibility of the spreadsheets is
limited, although they can be expanded by the user.
Several of the spreadsheet files use some of Multiplan's better fea¬
tures, and all the template cells have been locked to prevent overwrit¬
ing or erasing. Some of the worksheets take advantage of Multiplan's
split-screen feature. For example, the linear regression calculator uses a
wabash
ODSCCETTO
★ Per
5%” Diskettes with Hub Rings.
★ Per Diskette — Quantities of 50 or More Boxed.
Single Side, Single Density . $1 .39
Single Side, Double Density . $1.69
h Double Side, Double Density . $2.29
Reversible, Double Density . $2.46
Bulk diskettes , with envelopes
deduct 5$ per diskette.
Similar savings on 8 inch, quad density and
special format diskette.
10% Surcharge for quantities less than 50 diskettes.
O.O. D.
(Michigan Residents, Add 4% Sales Tax) E —
Shipping and Handling $3.00 per 50 or Fraction Thereof.
Continental U.S.A.
Precision Data Products
P.O. Box 8332, Grand Rapids, Ml 49508-0332
(616)452-3457 • Michigan 1-800-632-2468
Outside Michigan 1-800-258-0028
r
j
Softalkfor the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 145
second window for input and the first window for the display of the
worksheet results. The manual states that the user must turn off the
recalculation key to enhance the responsiveness of the worksheets.
Several of the calculators provide enough room to evaluate four
different problems or variations of one problem. For example, the user
could evaluate a mortgage loan payment at different mortgage loan
levels.
Only one worksheet duplicates a function already available in
Multiplan's function library, the NPV function. The template structures
the user's analysis and relieves him or her of entering the proper for¬
mulas.
The IRR function (for internal rate of return), assumes, as most
models do, that the stream of cash flows will be simple. If the cash flows
encountered have more than one sign change, multiple IRRs can result.
The break-even calculator produces accurate but clearly ridiculous
results if the profit margin percentage input exceeds the contribution
margin percentage. Although it is difficult to imagine such a situation,
it is conceivable that a user might misinterpret the template and get a
wrong result rather than an error message.
The compound-growth calculators handle two types of problems:
the customary compound-growth situation and the continuous com¬
pound-growth calculation. Present values, if entered as positive
amounts, cause future values to be displayed as negative amounts and
vice versa.
The annuity calculators tackle four common financial problems: or¬
dinary annuity, annuity due, continuous annuity, and amortization
schedule calculations. The amortization schedule calculator handles
balloon note calculations and permits the user to specify a project
name.
The discounted cash flow analysis calculators do three common
analyses: a project's net present value, internal rate of return, and/or
financial management rate of return. The worksheets are designed to fit
up to sixty cash flow estimates. These are the only worksheets that
provide on-screen instruction in the use of the template.
The profit-planning tools provide worksheets to standardize a
break-even analysis, compute depreciation using various depreciation
methods (straight-line, double-declining balance, sum-of-the-years),
and compute depreciation using the accelerated cost recovery system.
The basic statistics and forecasting calculators compute the mean,
standard deviation, and variance of a population and do the calcula¬
tions that return the slope, y-intercept, correlation coefficient, mini¬
mum and maximum value, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and
estimated value for the dependent variable, given a value of the inde¬
pendent variable. The worksheet's limit is sixty observations or sets of
data points.
The real estate finance calculators provide some answers to ques¬
tions about variable rate mortgage, graduated payment mortgage,
graduated payment adjustable mortgage, and wraparound mortgage
problems. These worksheets allow for up to six different interest rates
in computing the resulting mortgage payments.
The manual devotes a complete chapter to operating procedures
and a discourse on how to create your own calculators before it de¬
scribes each of the six financial and statistical calculators provided in
the program. The part about operating procedures steps you through
the keystrokes to load a calculator into the system and should present
no problem to the beginner. The section on creating your own calcula¬
tors, however, is a four-page treatise on elementary programming.
Rather than show the user how to create or modify the existing calcula¬
tors, it discusses problem definition, screen design, and algorithm selec¬
tion and productioh— hardly a hands-on practical approach.
The remaining chapters guide the user through each calculator, with
the help of one or two examples. Each chapter includes a bibliography
of textbooks covering the subject matter. A glossary of terms at the end
of the manual serves as a quick memory jogger of financial and statisti¬
cal terms forgotten after the final college exam. Finally, an index pro¬
vides quick reference to the manual section discussing the selected
topic.
Unforturiately, the quick reference guide provided duplicates the
third through eighth chapters. The text and examples are identical, so if
you have trouble understanding the material in the manual, the guide
will be no help.
Overall, this product is not bad. If you often use a hand-held calcu¬
lator to db financial calculations such as compound interest, net present
value, break-even points, depreciation, and the like, this series of
Multiplan files will save you time.
— Mark C. Herbers
Financial Planning for Multiplan and the IBM PC. Expert Systems (4300 West
Sixty-Second Street, Indianapolis, IN 46268; 800-428-3696). Requires Mult i-
plan .
Leading Effectively
Computer-based training has grown up and moved into the
executive suite; Leading Effectively is a highly flexible train¬
ing package designed to be used by individuals or teams. It can be used
as a self-study unit by managers wanting to improve their management
style, or it can be administered by corporate training departments in
developing management teams. The materials are based on manage¬
ment techniques that have been developed over the past forty years.
The training is personalized, private, interactive, and self-paced.
The program consists of two floppy disks and a well-written 140-
page workbook that provides operating instructions, program descrip¬
tions, and learning objectives for each study unit. Worksheets are
included to help the user evaluate leadership style and develop action
plans for implementing the newly learned skills on the job. The work¬
book also provides guidelines for further development of leadership
skills and a bibliography of current books on management techniques.
The first disk contains all four of the study units, a glossary of man¬
agement terms, and an additional copy of the bibliography for easy
reference. Access to the material is through a graphic menu called a
Thoughtree, which resembles a corporate organization chart. To start
the system, the user selects the number of the box containing the de¬
sired lesson. At the end of each lesson, the Thoughtree returns so that
another lesson can be selected. Each lesson leads the student through a
WASTED WORDSTAR
Don't hitch along using just little parts of
this powerful program. Order our
guaranteed, 4-cassette audio course.
Instead of digging through manuals, you
and your people will learn by listening.
Faster. Easier. And better, includes
MailMerge instructions. Money-back if
not delighted — return in 15 days for a
full refund. $75.00 (+ $2 shipping).
Credit card holders call
800-222-3547
In IL, call 312-790-0517.
FlipTrack® training tapes from
EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS
Dept. 103, 15 E. Madison, Lombard, IL 60148
146 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
series of logical steps into a better understanding of the tools of leader¬
ship. Built-in questionnaires assess the student's leadership skills and
compare them with national norms.
Managers can compare their self-assessment with their subordi¬
nates' views of their leadership style. Each manager enters his or her
name and the number of subordinate people. Then each subordinate
uses the computer in private and answers a series of questions. The
manager can then obtain comparisons between his or her own views,
those of his subordinates, and the national norm for people in leader¬
ship positions.
The quality of the package is good. The system is easy to start and
use. The Though tree menu and on-screen prompts guide the user at
every step. The graphics are simple and colorful, with enough variety
to hold attention. One problem, however, is the use of color to high¬
light words of text. Unless your monitor is in top condition and care¬
fully tuned, the highlighting makes the words harder to read. A few
sound effects reward the user for correct answers and emphasize key
points, but if the program is used in an office nothing would be lost by
turning the sound off.
A color monitor is almost a necessity. Although the program runs
on a monochrome display, many of its text screens and graphics will be
difficult to read. Running the program in color not only improves its
readability but also improves the learning process. The careful use of
color text and graphics adds variety and provides a psychological em¬
phasis of the message.
Two software problems were found. The first was in the subpro¬
gram that graphs the user's self-assessment. The entire character of the
graphics changed at this point and became faint, distorted, and hard to
read. Fortunately, the information was presented again in tabular form
after the program returned to its normal mode.
The second problem was simply a matter of one portion of the pro¬
gram not being as convenient to use as the rest. Once the user starts the
second program disk, there is no way to return to the menu without
going all the way through the questionnaire. The same is true when a
manager comes back to retrieve the data his subordinates entered. To
get to the data, he or she must work through the instructions before
reaching the menu.
The results of Leading Effectively should be excellent. The training
materials are arranged logically and are easy to follow. Learning goals
are established, and a variety of methods are used to achieve them. Best
of all, the training is personal. It's like having your own management
consultant to coach you on the job.
Thoughtware maintains a toll-free number for users to call if they
have problems, and their response is prompt and courteous. This train¬
ing package is one of ten in Thoughtware's Management Series.
—Thomas L. Bever
Leading Effectively. Thoughtware (2699 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove,
FL 33133; 800-848-9273). Requires 128K to run under DOS 2.0. $450.
□ Colorgraphy
Given its $99.95 price tag, Colorgraphy should be a hands-
down winner for any user needing a color/ graphics editor.
Sadly, it isn't.
The program consists of a graphics editor and a slide-presentation
program. A plotter-printing program ( Plotography ) is available at ex¬
tra cost.
The color graphics editor is a menuless screen with cursor. You enter
commands either by pressing single keys (such as A for arc) or by using
the function keys to set certain environment features. Cursor moves are
implemented, in one of two adjustable increments, from the keyboard.
Colorgraphy distinguishes between pictures and drawings. The for¬
mer are limited to 60-by-60 pixels and can be extracted separately from
current drawings and saved for later reuse (but not merging) with an
existing drawing. A picture is a whole screen.
Commands available include arc , box, circle, duplicate, ellipse, flip,
go to, set cursor increment, clear rectangle, line, move , paint, rotate,
scale, text insertion, and vanishing point. Of the nonob vious com¬
mands, duplicate is limited to copying rectangular images that cannot
exceed sixty pixels on a side. Flip produces a mirror image of any desig¬
nated rectangle, again limited to a 60-by-60 area. Go to, a potentially
useful command, requires that the user know which of 320-by-199 po¬
sitions he or she wishes to move to. Rotate and scale, like their compan¬
ion commands, also are limited to a 60-by-60-pixel area.
Environment commands, nicely summarized on a pop-up screen,
include a function to define a screen brush of up to one hundred bristles
or different color lines. The bristle mode, once defined, can be turned
on at will to allow broad brush and colorful painting. A coordinates
display can be turned on, as can a prompt mode for some of the com¬
mands. Another key saves the picture or drawing to disk, and still an¬
other retrieves it. The final keys print the drawing and end the session.
for WordStar™ Frustration
DDPLUS™
A Powerful Text Formatter for WordStar
or Any Standard ASCII Text File
ORDER NOW: $39.95
Include $2.00
Shipping.
Credit Card Orders
Welcomed.
Write or Call.
THE
ALTERNATE
KEY
P.O. Box 148
Williamston. Ml 48895
(517) 484-1664
9 a.m.-6 p.m. EST
Friendly: Menu-Driven, Fully Documented, Needs
No Patches to WordStar.
Powerful: Merges Form Letters/ Addresses, Micro
Justifies on Dot Matrix (Epson, Prowriter) as well as
Letter-Quality Printers.
Versatile: Extensive Formatting Features, Macros
for Advanced Users, Uses Any Serial or Parallel Port.
Requires: IBM-PC, PC-DOS 1.1 or 2.0, 96K memory, 80 col. monitor.
IBM-PC/PC-DOS. WordStar. Prowriter and Epson are trademarks o{ International Business
Machines Corp.. MicroPro International Corp.. Leading Edge Prods. Inc., and Epson
America Inc. respectively.
YOU CAN:
Say good-bye to Ctrl-B.
Choose page width, length,
and margins from the menu.
Select multiple copies,
headers, footers, and line
spacing. Print one to four
columns of fully justified
text per page.
Automatically number and
indent outlines or lists.
Use DDPLUS "as is", or
define your own printer and
menu default values.
This text was produced
using WordStar, a dot matrix
(Prowriter) printer, and
DDPLUS.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 147
The slide-show program allows the user to view created drawings
by specifying which ones are to be shown and the duration of each.
Presentations can be stored for repeat viewing. The resolution of the
screen (high or medium) is adjustable as well.
The requirement that the user think in screen points and locations is
a shortcoming of this program. So is the arbitrary 60-by-60 limitation
on most of Colorgraphy s advanced functions. Even so, however, the
program would be worth its price if it weren't unacceptably slow.
Initially, it was hard for this reviewer to understand how the system
could be so slow in its handling of cursor moves (the cursor "runs on"
to keep up with repetitive move commands, disappears, and generally
acts up every chance it can) and screen manipulation. A call to the
manufacturer brought word that the slowness is a consequence of the
implementation of one remaining Colorgraphy command, the back¬
space key. This key serves as a partial "undo" key for the system. That
is, you can hit it immediately after any command and restore the sys¬
tem to its state before the command. To implement this function, unfor¬
tunately, the screen must be saved after each command.
The manual for Colorgraphy is adequate at best, being a straight¬
forward description of the system's commands without examples (ex¬
cepting one appendix example) or tutorials. A disk of sample screen
Hies is included, however, for viewing and as a demonstration of the
system's abilities. Only Basic's error messages are implemented (the
program is in compiled Basic), and the Colorgraphy manual warns
that the system cannot trap certain combination keypresses, such as
control-break.
Despite its low price and some unusual functions (the bristles com¬
mand, for example), this software may not be the best choice one could
make in a graphics program.
— Thomas V Bonoma
Colorgraphy. Cactus Software (Box 880, Peoria, AZ 85345). $99.95. Re¬
quires 128K, color/graphics adapter, and an IBM (or fully IBM-compatible)
printer.
MetaWindow
If you're not a programmer, you might as well skip this re¬
view, because MetaWindow is definitely not a user's package.
It is a sophisticated set of graphics procedures, written in assembly
language, that can be interfaced with Pascal, C, or the Macro
Assembler to create graphics programs. These procedures do line
drawing, color fill (with either single tone or dither), image mapping,
and mouse handling, as well as providing the ability to create custom
text fonts and variable-sized windows. Some of the procedures are
written at a basic level, allowing you to poll the current mouse status or
determine the current cursor coordinates. Other procedures are ex¬
tremely powerful and do such things as moving bit-mapped images
from the screen to an array and back. Still others control line clipping,
which is available within defined window limits as well as the full dis¬
play screen.
There are five MetaWindow routines that interact with an "event
queue/' which buffers user input. This input can be a keystroke, mouse
button, and so on, but there's no information in the manual regarding
the size of the queue. A note under function Storevent suggests that an
"EVENTQUEUE(false)" call should be issued to avoid intermixing
queue events with "programmed events," but it does not elaborate.
There's no discussion of queue initialization or how the queue size can
be changed.
We tested MetaWindow on a 128K PC with the standard IBM
color /graphics adapter, as well as the Microsoft Mouse, which uses a
plug-in board. The package is also compatible with the Tecmar Graph¬
ics-Master card, Hercules monochrome graphics adapter, and CCS's
Supervision card. It can interface with the PC-Mouse by Mouse Sys¬
tems and VisiCorp's VisiOn Ml mouse, as well as the Microsoft unit,
and it requires a minimum of 128K.
MetaWindow will support the 320-by-200 pixel medium-resolution
graphics available with the standard IBM display, or up to 720 by 352
pixels (mono) if you are using the Tecmar board. Unfortunately it does
not support any of the hi-res sixteen-color capabilities available with
some non-IBM cards.
Two source code samples are included in the package, one in Pascal
and one in C. Although MetaWindow claims compatibility with the
Microsoft Mouse, the enclosed Pascal sample, Draw. Pas, assumes
you'll be using a three-button mouse and uses the middle button to
display the menu; if you have the Microsoft two-button mouse you
must change the initialization of the variable SWmiddle from 2 to 5.
This lets you see the menu by pressing both mouse buttons at the same
time.
Working with MetaWindow can be frustrating for assembly lan¬
guage programmers. The routines tested were obviously designed to
work with Pascal, and assembly language interfaces appeared to be an
afterthought. For example. Appendix C in the manual shows how to
call the procedures from assembler but neglects to note that they must
be compiled under Pascal before they can be used. Since the Pascal
compiler requires 128K to compile even a trivial program, this meant
testing had to switch to a larger machine. In addition, the interface
instructions reference the procedures by name but neglect to say what
files they are in, or how to introduce them to the linker. The upshot is
that unless you're a seasoned assembly language programmer you're
apt to be hopelessly at sea trying to figure out what's going on.
Working with the Pascal interface is significantly easier, and the rou¬
tines are fast, efficient, and comprehensive. Most of the procedures
you'll need in graphics programming are included in MetaWindow,
from Insetrect (which automatically shrinks and expands a given rec¬
tangle) to Fillstyle (which lets you select any one of thirty-two color
patterns for filling in a given area). Interestingly enough, MetaWindow
does not have any routines that manipulate circles, ellipses, parabolas,
or cones. Presumably the authors feel these functions are simple
enough to be left as an exercise for their readers.
The 130-page manual is detailed and contains specific information
about each of the fifty-three procedures and nine functions, complete
with a sample line showing how each can be invoked through C or
Pascal. Return codes, bit maps, and other information is included
where appropriate, and there is a chapter on programming techniques
for graphics. There is no tutorial, but two sample programs in the man¬
ual show how to do interrupts.
The software license agreement included with the manual provides
for use only on a single machine, which would effectively limit this
product to hobbyist use. However, Metagraphics president Jack R.
Davis assures us that distribution licensing agreements are available for
developers. What this boils down to is that if you want to use Metawin¬
dow procedures in a program you plan to sell, you have to negotiate a
separate agreement with Metagraphics. This extra cost might well be
worth it to programmers or software houses that can't spare the time to
develop their own basic routines. However, it is important to remem¬
ber that the only color graphics currently supported by this package is
the medium-resolution, four-color mode available with the standard
color /graphics card.
If you work in a language it supports, and you want to program
displays for menu icons, games, or other graphics applications, Meta¬
Window can save time and trouble — provided you're an experienced
programmer and are willing to gamble on selling enough copies of your
program to make it worthwhile. OEM licenses for both source and ob¬
ject code are available, and source code royalties are substantially
higher per copy sold. There's no up-front fee for entering into an OEM
agreement with Metagraphics.
— Dian Crayne
MetaWindow. Metagraphics (444 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041;
415-964-1334). $150. A
148 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Marketalk News
A The Chase DL is a diskless network micro¬
computer from Chase Technologies (375 Syl¬
van Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632;
201-894-5544). The microcomputer incorpo¬
rates network hardware manufactured by Or¬
chid Technology, the makers of PCnet . It is
compatible with all microcomputers and soft¬
ware that run in a DOS 2.0 or 2.1 PCnet local-
area network. $2,395.
A Select Information Systems (919 Sir Francis
Drake Boulevard, Kentfield, CA 94904; 415-
459-4003) has introduced Select Bilingual , a
Spanish/ English word processor. It can dis¬
play international characters without
embedded commands. A spelling checker will
search for errors in either or both languages.
$395.
A ISM (932 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD
20850; 301-279-5775) has entered the portable
PC-compatible market with the Unisystem -
PC. The system features 256K, two 360K
floppy disk drives, a nine-inch monitor, two
RS-232 ports, one parallel port, 8K of
EPROM, and a high-resolution amber display.
$2,795. A The Unisystem-XT has an internal
ten-megabyte Winchester disk and one 360K
floppy drive plus all the features of the Uni¬
system PC. $3,995.
A Applied Microsystems (Box 832, Roswell,
GA 30007; 404-475-0832) offers a project-
tracking program that tracks tasks over time
by either responsibility or priority. Protracs al¬
lows the user to track up to one hundred sepa¬
rate projects containing one hundred tasks
each. A version for the PCjr can track up to
seventy-five tasks or action items per project.
Requires 128K. $59.95.
A Mail Order Pro, a system for mail-order
companies, has been announced by Profes¬
sional Publications (Box 199, San Carlos, CA
94070; 415-593-5119). The system processes
mail and phone orders while keeping track of
inventory and back orders. It produces mail¬
ing labels, credit card sales drafts, packing
lists, and COD tags. Reports are produced to
identify productive advertisements and active
products. $695.
A PC Accounting Trends is a newsletter for CPA
practitioners using IBM and IBM-compatible mi¬
crocomputers. It provides information on the mi¬
crocomputing aspects of a CPA firm's audit, tax,
write-up, and consulting practices. Contact PC
Accounting Trends (Box 435, 1850 Union Street,
San Francisco, CA 94123; 415-788-2244). Twelve
issues, $59.
A Scarborough Systems (25 North Broadway,
Tarry town, NY 10591; 914-332-4545) has in¬
troduced Run for the Money, an arcade busi¬
ness game. The key to winning the two-player
space game is down-to-earth business sense.
$49.95.
A Softquest (Box 3456, McLean, VA 22102;
703-281-1621) has released version 2 of The
Smart Checkbook, a personal financial man¬
agement program. Financial records produced
include family budget reports, net worth state¬
ments, tax records, custom reports, and sum¬
mary tables. Money market, checking,
savings, credit card, and cash accounts can be
tracked individually or in any user-desired
combination. Income and expenses can be or¬
ganized with up to two hundred budget and
two hundred tax categories. $149.
A A communications package that emulates
asynchronous terminals and automatically
learns network log on/log off protocols has
been introduced by Direct. aid (Box 4420,
Boulder, CO 80306; 303-442-8080). The Im¬
personator can range from a typewriter mode
to a built-in programming language for auto¬
mating sequences of multiple data transmis¬
sions. Requires 192K and modem. $195.
A Mouse Systems Corporation (2336-H Walsh
Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95051; 408-988-
0211) has developed Designer Pop-up menu
software that allows users to design or person-
TOTAL CONTROL:
PCI FORTH"
Compiles with the New 83-Standard
GRAPHICS* GAMES* COMMUNICATIONS* ROBOTICS
DATA ACQUISITION • PROCESS CONTROL
• PC/FORTH™: interactive and conversa¬
tional, but 20 times faster than BASIC.
• PC/FORTH™ programs: highly structured,
modular, easy to maintain.
• PC FORTH™; direct control over all inter¬
rupts, memory locations, and i/o ports.
• PC/FORTH™ dull access to DOS files and
functions.
• PC/FORTH™ application programs can
be compiled into turnkey COM files
and distributed with no license fee.
• PC/FORTH™ Cross Compilers available
for ROM’ed or disk based applications
on most microprocessors.
• PC/FORTH™: compatible with PC/XT,
COMPAQ, and all hard disks.
• PC/FORTH™: for PC-DOS 1.1 and 2.0,
CP/M-86®, Concurrent CP/M.
Trademarks; IBM, Internationa: Business Machines
Corp.; CP/M, Digital Research Inc.; PC/Forth-P and
PC/GEN, Laboratory Microsystems Inc,
PC/FORTH™ . . . $100.00
Includes interpreter/compiler with virtual memory
and background multi-tasking, full screen editor.
Assembler, utilities. 200-page technical manual.
Upgrade to PC/FORTH-P available.
PC/FORTH-P™ . $250.00
Allows creation of FORTH programs up to 1
megabyte in size.
DEMO DISK . $5.00
Requires graphics card.
Extension Packages
Forth Cross Compiler . $300.00
Advanced Color Graphics . . — $100,00
Intel 8087 Support . $100.00
Software Floating Point , . $100.00
Interactive Symbolic Debugger . $100.00
PC/GEN™ Custom Character Sets ..$ 50.00
PC/TERM for Smartmodem . $ 60.00
QTF+ Editor/Text Formatter . $100.00
Curry FORTH Programming Aids .. . $150.00
Cross Reference Utility . . $ 25.00
B-PTree Index Manager . . . $125.00
B+Tree File and Index Manager... $200.00
Intel 8087 Processor . . $200.00
“Starting FORTH" Tutorial . $ 16.00
Laboratory Microsystems Incorporated
Post Office Box 10430 , Marina del Bey, CA 90295
Phone credit card orders to (213) 306-7412
Softalkfor the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 149
new catalog of the
business computer
forms and supplies
you need most for
your IBM PC!
Forms, a division of Deluxe Check
Printers, gives you the software-
compatible checks, invoices, state¬
ments and word processing stationery
you've been searching for. And acces¬
sories too.
And we can ship them all to
you in as few as 3 working
days!
Deluxe delivers your order in record
time because we know how much you
depend on it to make your office run
smoothly. And we deliver it to your pre¬
cise specifications. That means cus¬
tomization for your unique program
needs, or personalization of any of our
200 standard forms for popular soft¬
ware programs. And you order only
what you need — as few as 500 forms.
See what we’ve got to offer your
business. Then see just how fast we
can deliver it.
Send for your FREE
catalog today!
530 N. WHEELER ST.
P.O. BOX 64046
ST. PAUL. MINNESOTA 551644)040
Q YES. Rush me your complete, new
catalog of computer forms and essentials.
My Name Title
Company Name
Address
City State Zip
C _ l _
Phone
Clip out and mail or call TOLL FREE:
1-800-328-0304
(In Minnesota, call 1-612-483-7300.)
alize pop-up menus for most IBM-compatible
software. Preconfigured pop-up menus are in¬
cluded for 1-2-3, VisiCalc, Multiplan, Personal
Editor, Volkswriter, WordStar, SuperCalc 3,
and MultiMate. $95.
A Peachtree Software (3445 Peachtree Road
N.E„ Atlanta, GA 30326; 800-247-3224) has
released Peachpak 4, an updated sixteen-bit
version of its accounting package for small
businesses. The integrated package contains
general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts
receivable. $395.
A dbMenu / is a front-end menu driver pro¬
gram from JNZ (729 Windward Drive, Rodeo,
CA 94572; 415-799-1446) for dBase II. With
the program, the user can access most dBase II
commands. It also provides features such as
multiple-key sorting. $34.95.
A National Microware (2960 South Daimler
Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92705; 714-979-7000)
has released a software and address book
package, Personal Planner, that lets users com¬
pile and print names, addresses, and telephone
numbers. The package comes with an address
book that uses tractor-fed forms. $99.
A Astro-Aid is a software package for astro¬
nomical work from Zephyr Services (306
South Homewood Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
15208; 412-247-5915). It includes forty-four as¬
tronomical functions for use by professionals
or amateurs. An accompanying manual ex¬
plains the program and the astronomical the¬
ory involved. $29.95.
A ACS Consultants (199 California Drive,
Mi librae, CA 94030; 415-697-3861) has re¬
leased Prospects Unlimited, a prospect-man¬
agement system for salespeople. It provides
access to information about sales leads, includ¬
ing a history of the prospects past purchases
and contacts with the salesperson. Requires
128K. $349.
A EduSystems (2221 University Avenue, Min¬
neapolis, MN 55414; 612-623-4061) has re¬
leased a PC version of Church Management
Systems. The program provides contribution/
pledge record-keeping, membership informa¬
tion reporting, and a fund accounting and
budgeting capability for congregations rang¬
ing from one hundred to sixteen thousand
members. $2,085.
A Two packages have been introduced by
Courseware (10075 Carroll Canyon Road, San
Diego, CA 92131; 619-578-1700). People can
polish their selling skills with Sold!, a self¬
teaching package. Included is a second disk
with a database management program that
keeps track of prospect data, reminders, and
appointments. Requires 128K. $79.50. A Basic
]r is a tutorial package that teaches the funda¬
mentals of Basic programming. Students learn
fundamental programming concepts. Included
with the package is Graphics Jr, an interactive
graphics utility that allows users to draw and
paint lines and shapes. $49.95.
A RDT Software (Box 96634, Weatherford,
OK 73096; 405-772-1821) has introduced
Bugscreen, a symbolic debugger for the Macro
Assembler. Its display features windows for
the source listing, the registers and flags, the
stack, and selected memory. During execution,
changes are highlighted on the screen. $95.
A Printer Optimizer, an electronic spooler, is
offered by Applied Creative Technology (2156
West Northwest Highway, Dallas, TX 75220;
214-556-2916). The device provides separation
of computing and printing functions and, if
there is more than one printer, lets the operator
select which printer prints each job. Storage
capacity is expandable from 64K to 256K.
$499.
A Continental Software (11223 South Hindry
Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90045; 213-417-
8031) has introduced three home and small-
business applications for the PCjr. The Home
Accountant jr tracks up to five checkbooks, all
cash and credit card transactions, and up to
one hundred budget categories. The program
also prints checks and a variety of reports.
$74.95. A The Tax Advantage jr supports
Forms 1040 and 4562 and Schedules A, B, C,
D, E, G, SE, and W. It also offers the ability to
itemize any line, call up longer descriptions of
the lines on the 1040 form, and automatically
calculate taxes at any time. $69.95. A The
Home Cataloguer jr is a cataloguing and per¬
sonal inventory program that can do column
totaling on numeric fields. $49.95.
A Dezign is a graphically oriented structured
design and programming tool from Zeducomp
(Box 68, Stirling, NJ 07980; 201-755-2262). It
enables users to create and edit structured flow
charts on-screen, store them in a database, and
obtain hard copy listings. In addition, users can
assign detailed source code statements and
conditions to the diagrams and generate dBase
II command files or Ada, C, Pascal, or PL/1
source code from the comments and control
logic represented on the diagrams and the cor¬
responding detailed statements and condi¬
tions. The generated source code can then be
interpreted or compiled. Requires 128K. $200.
A PC Mail Order System, from Data Consult¬
ing Group (12 Skylark Drive, Larkspur, CA
94939; 415-927-0990), logs sales by item, cus¬
tomer, date, serial number, quantity, tax rate,
discount, and price; prints or displays sales re¬
ports; provides mailing list functions; main¬
tains inventory control; and creates invoices
and feeds data to the sales, inventory, and
mailing subsystems. $295.
A Excalibur Sources (Box 467220, Atlanta, GA
30346; 404-395-0306) has introduced Exsell , an
integrated hardware/software system for
sales, marketing, and telemarketing. The sys¬
tem combines information management soft¬
ware with an autodialer telephone to create an
automated telemarketing workstation. $750.
Software only, $495.
150 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
A The first in a series of courses on investment
and financial analysis is available from The
Wizards (Box 7118, The Woodlands, TX
77387). How To Make Good Investments cov¬
ers the same material covered in business
schools, with some practical street techniques.
$150.
A Unik Associates (12545 West Burleigh,
Brookfield, WI 53005; 414-782-5030) has intro¬
duced two software packages. Maintenance
Management Software allows users to main¬
tain records and generate reports on equip¬
ment history and preventive maintenance,
work orders, and inventory control. Requires
128K. $1,295. A General Engineering Software
is a package of more than fifty programs for
engineers, technicians, analysts, and others. It
covers areas of general engineering, heat ex¬
changers, hydraulics, and fluid power. $195.
A Pencept (39 Green Street, Waltham, MA
02154; 617-893-6390) is marketing Pendpad , a
peripheral that analyzes penstrokes as
handprinted characters are formed and gener¬
ates high-resolution graphics. It uses a tech¬
nique called dynamic character recognition,
which enables handwritten characters to be
used in lieu of or in addition to keyboard in¬
put. $995.
A Challenge Software (134 West Thirty-Sec¬
ond Street, New York, NY 10001) offers Sex-
ware, a sex-education program that asks more
than 200 multiple-choice questions on a wide
range of sexual topics and scores the user's sex
IQ. $29.95.
A IBM (900 King Street, Rye Brook, NY 10573;
914-934-4488) has announced Personal Com¬
puter Interactive Executive (PC/ IX), an oper¬
ating system derived from the Unix multiuser
system. The system can be used for program
development, test processing, or running exist¬
ing Unix system application programs. $900.
A Horsebusiness , from Universal Microsys¬
tems (Box 1343, Duluth, GA 30136; 404-449-
0690) aids those involved in raising, breeding,
racing, boarding, or training horses. It in¬
cludes full double-entry accounting, customer
billing, complete financial reports, and horse
information management. $995.
A Individual Software (1163-1 Chess Drive, Fos¬
ter City, CA 94404; 415-341-6116) has an¬
nounced that three of its tutorial packages are
available for the PQV. Typing Instructor pro¬
vides the integration of instructional lessons with
varied choices of instructional methods. $49.95.
A Professor DOS is a comprehensive DOS tuto¬
rial for the PQV that teaches users how to copy
files, edit programs, and manage floppy disks.
$59.95. A Professor Pixel is an interactive train¬
ing program that enables users to create graphics,
sounds, color, and animation using Basic. $59.95.
A The Business Division (Scott Adams, Incor¬
porated, 155 Sabal Palm Drive, Longwood, FL
32750; 305-862-6917) has released Maxi Ac¬
countant, a business-accounting package for
the XT. The package incorporates thirteen inte¬
grated modules. $795.
A Softsmith Corporation (1431 Doolittle Drive,
San Leandro, CA 94577; 415-430-2411) is
offering two products for the PC. Micro Cook¬
book can select recipes containing specified ingre¬
dients, such as items on hand and leftovers.
Ingredient quantities can be adjusted automati¬
cally to the number desired. $40. A Multi-RAM
makes possible multiple use of a variety of soft¬
ware programs by allowing integration of up to
nine programs interchangeably at one time. On¬
board help is available, and status messages are
displayed on-screen to prevent confusion. $99.
A A standalone computer that plugs into a PC,
The Intelligent Data Collector, from Tech-S
(12997 Merriman Road, Livonia, MI 48150;
313-425-9800), collects, stores, and then trans¬
mits on request such data as time, attendance,
and other management information. It is de¬
signed to help eliminate errors caused by the
handling of time-card data and to reduce the
time consumed in calculation and preparation
of employee payrolls. $2,995. .
A KeyTronic Corporation (Box 14687, Spo¬
kane, WA 99214; 509-928-8000) has intro¬
duced a plug-compatible keyboard for the
PCjr. The keyboard features a low-profile de¬
sign, familiar typewriter key location, LED in¬
dicators on lock keys, and solid-state
capacitative switches. $209. With separate cur¬
sor-control pad, $255.
A Alpha Software Corporation (30 B Street,
Burlington, MA 01803; 617-229-2924) has un¬
veiled The Electric Desk, an integrated soft¬
ware program for the PCjr. It combines four
functions — word processing, spreadsheet
analysis, database management, and commu¬
nications. The program features windows, a
macro programming language, and context-
sensitive help screens. $295.
A Prelude Corporation (20380 Town Center
Lane, Cupertino, CA 95014; 408-257-6033)
has announced Pro-Kit, a multifunction ex¬
pansion memory module that expands the PC-
jr's memory by as much as 512K. It also
includes an on-board quartz clock/calendar
and a printer port. 64K version, $395; 128K
version, $455.
A PC Reset, a hardware reset button that
works when control-alt-delete does not, is
available from Security Microsystems Con¬
sultants (16 Flagg Place, Staten Island, NY
10304; 212-667-1019). The kit can be installed
with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, and it
requires no modifications to the circuit board.
$89.95.
A Sandra Pakin and Associates (6007 North
Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60660; 312-271-
2848) has released The Starter Writing Guide,
a writing-guide framework that provides basic
standards for documentation writers to help
them produce consistent, grammatically and
mechanically correct documentation. The disk
Conquer
the
Tower of Babel!
READ AND WRITE DOZENS
OF DISK FORMATS WITH
XENO-COPY PLUS™
In the Old Testament ambition and
pride resulted In the Tower of Babel
where no one speaks the same
language. In modern times, the
microcomputer industry achieved the
same result without divine intervention.
Now with Xeno-Copy Plus, read and
write 50 disk formats in your IBM
PC/compatible with no modems or
hardware required!
Insert a source disk into your PC, select
the files and make the copies -fast (16K
under 1 min.). Transfer any files between
different computers!
Xeno-Copy Plus supports most double¬
density CP/M (-80 & -86) formats.
TRSDOS. p-SYSTEM, NECDOS, Turbodos
and more. Advanced option adds 96
TPI, single-density (with compatible
hardware), and input individual disk
parameters - add $50.00.
Now available in DEC version.
Xeno-Copy One-way Xter $ 99.50
Xeno-Copy/DEC One-way Xter 1 24.50
Xeno-Copy PLUS Two-way Xter 1 49.50
Xeno-Disk Software Dev. System
Read, write, format, copy 379.50
THE ORIGINAL KEYFIXER
Five precision molded
plastic collars fit on
existing ENTER, TAB,
BACKSPACE, and both
SHIFT KEYS. Increase
accuracy & reduce
fatigue. Does not raise
key height.
Set of 5 . $14.95
EXTEND-A-CORD
6' keyboard extension . $17.95
^ Dept. S, 7950 W. Fourth St.,
- \ fifTEX Los Angeies, CA 90043
_ Vsy stems (213)938-0857
If unavailable locally, send payment or V1S/YMC with
card # and exp. date. Phone orders O.K. Please add S3, 00
s/h. CA residents add 6.5% sales tax.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 151
Strictly
Soft Ware
You'll need
a full-feature
word processor to
list all of the
products in our
Spring/ Summer
Catalog
Send for free catalog today.
Strictly Soft Ware 1-61 4-587-2938
f To receive your free catalog right
away, send this coupon to the address
• below. Do you want our □ Apple or
I □ IBM Catalog? Overseas mailing -
I $2.50.
\ NAME
STREET
CITY STATE ZIP
( ) -
PHONE
Strictly Soft Ware
P.O. Box 338
Granville, OH 43023
a
r
Strictly
Soft Ware
5rV_5_j
contains the framework in three formats:
WordStar , MultiMate, and ASCII. $40.
A AST Research (2121 Alton Avenue, Irvine,
CA 92714; 714-863-1333) has introduced the
AST-PCnet II, a local-area network that elimi¬
nates the need for dedicated print and Hie serv¬
ers, includes a print spooling capability, and
simplifies installation. Requires 128K. $1,290.
MonoGraphPlus is a high-resolution graphics
board that adds bit-mapped graphics capabili¬
ties to the monochrome display. $545 .
A DSS Development (4 Barnard Lane,
Bloomfield, CT 06002; 203-243-5554) has in¬
troduced OptionWare , a series of integrated
software packages that provide applications
for 1-2-3. Each application uses the same sim¬
ple, standard menu, which reduces the user's
input to five principal keystrokes. All 1-2-3 ca¬
pabilities are retained. The series currently has
fifty-two packages and is expected to grow to
more than two hundred. $130 per application.
Requires 1-2-3.
A Three programs have been released by
Hayden Software (600 Suffolk Street, Lowell,
MA 01853; 800-343-1218) for writers. PIE
Writer, long a popular word processor for the
Apple, is available in a PC version that offers
split-screen or alternate-screen editing of two
files at once, makes full use of the function
keys, and creates and works with standard
DOS files, which may be larger than memory.
In 128K, the program loads into memory,
eliminating swapping and freeing the drive.
$199.95. A The Writer is an easy-to-use, home
version of PIE Writer, Features include form-
letter output, tabbing both by word and by
movable marks, justification, control page
breaks, headers and footers, text transfer from
file to file, and file chaining. DOS 2.0 and 2.1
versions require 96K. $49.95. A The Speller is a
dictionary of more than 20,000 words for
checking files created by PIE Writer, WordStar,
Volkswriter, and Final Word, as well as Easy-
Writer's ASCII files. $49.95.
A File Transfer System is a utility from Mack-
ensen Distributed Systems (3323 Pearl Street,
Santa Monica, CA 90405; 213-452-5520) that
allows files to be transferred between the PC
and mainframes running TSO, via the IRMA
Decision Support Interface. $295.
A PC-Handler, from Synetix (10635 N.E.
Thirty-Eighth Place, Kirkland, WA 98033;
206-828-4884), is a multifunction card that
links up to four PCs in a shared-resource net¬
work. PCs can share, access, and transfer the
same files, as well as use the same peripherals.
The board features two serial ports, four paral¬
lel ports, expandable RAM memory, clock, in¬
tegral software, and disk emulation. $795.
A Rocky Mountain Software Systems (Box
3283, Walnut Creek, CA 94598; 415-680-8378)
offers NewWord, a word processor for use
with all IBM personal computers. The pro¬
gram features merge print built in, an unerase
command, microjustification, and program¬
mable function keys. The program is key-
stroke-identical and command- and
file-compatible with WordStar. Requires 96K.
$249.
A A new version of Word, from Microsoft
(10700 Northup Way, Bellevue, WA 98009;
206-828-8080), has been introduced that runs
with the Hercules Graphics Card, thus allow¬
ing all the features of the program to be used
for the first time in high resolution with the
monochrome monitor. $375.
A VCN ExecuVision is a presentation graphics
program from Prentice-Hall (200 Old Tappan
Road, Old Tappan, NJ 07675; 201-767-5000)
that enables users to generate graphics, text,
and illustrations with just a few keystrokes.
Techniques include automatic pie, bar, and line
graphs, as well and text and image processing,
sketch and paint capabilities, and motion
processes. $395.
A Corona Data Systems (31324 Via Colinas,
Westlake Village, CA 91361; 818-706-1505)
has announced a portable, hard-disk-based
IBM-compatible personal computer. The
PPCXT incorporates a half-height, 5 1 /4-inch
ten-megabyte Winchester disk drive. Bundled
software includes MS-DOS 2.0, GWBasic,
MultiMate, and PC Tutor. $4,895.
A SofTech Microsystems (16885 West Bernar¬
do Drive, San Diego, CA 92127; 619-451-
1230) offers a bundled USCD Pascal/ p-sys-
tem/ Insight Window Designer package for the
PCjr. The latter program is a windowing
toolkit that provides color windowing capabil¬
ities and enhancements for multiapplication
integration, including a text-based window ed¬
itor, hierarchical menus, and on-line help serv¬
ices in an open-application programming
environment. A version for the PC and XT
also is available. $399. Insight Window De¬
signer separately, $99.
A Forte-Call, from Forte Data Systems (1500
Norman Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95050; 408-
980-1750), ties remote PCs or XTs to an organ¬
ization's mainframe-based data network. A
host PC in the workplace must have one of the
company's 3270 emulation boards. Other PCs
then access the mainframe through the host.
$295.
A SongWright is a music processor from
Song Wright (928 Fillmore Street, Denver, CO
80206; 303-321-0481). It enables users to com¬
pose, save, edit, transpose, and play songs, as
well as prepare printed music. Lyrics can be
aligned with chord notations and notes. It fea¬
tures a full two-octave range, seven key signa¬
tures, multiple time signatures, and chordal
harmony. Requires an IBM or Epson graphics
printer. $24.95.
A Data-Win (Box 60995, Terminal Annex, Los
Angeles, CA 90060; 213-250-3916) has an¬
nounced Presidential Fever, an educational
game that teaches about U.S. politics, history,
152 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
geography, economics, and sociology. The
game has three versions: presidential election,
Republican convention, and Democratic con-
vention. Requires 128K and DOS 2.0. S39. 95,
A Blood Gas Consultant, from Medical Soft¬
ware Consortium (502 Springmont Drive,
Hopkinsville, KY 42240; 502-686-0208), is a
complete arterial blood gas interpretation
package. It features complete add/base and
respiratory analysis of arterial blood gases,
data storage for later recall, and hard-copy
printouts suitable for inclusion in the patient's
medical record. $595.
A Stilwell Software Products (16403 North
Forty-Third Drive, Glendale, AZ 85306: 602-
978-4678) has introduced Freecalc , a user-sup-
ported electronic spreadsheet with 100 rows
and twenty-five columns. The program has
been designed to give particular attention to
the needs of the first-time spreadsheet user. Re¬
quires 128K; 198 K for DOS 2,0. 535.
A Strategic Locations Planning (2471 Goll
Links Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95050; 408-247-
1956) offers Atlas, an interactive, menu-driven
package that generates maps and displays data
at the state, county, congressional district, AS!
or DMA advertising region, zip code, or cen¬
sus-tract levels. Users can select from three
hundred modifiable hatching patterns, sixteen
colors, three region label sizes, and many op¬
tions for legend and title placement. Requires
192K, color/ graphics adapter. 522 5,
A The Pacemaker Followup System, from
Trinity Computing Systems (1020 Holcombe
Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030; 713-790-
1394), enables hospital-based and private phy¬
sicians to maintain records on pacemaker
patients and supplies. The system provides for
each patient a detailed record that includes
data on implants, reprogramming, and follow¬
up activities. Hospital version, 55,500, Private
practice version, 55,000.
A Qualitas (8314 Thoreau Drive, Bethesda,
MD 20817; 301-469-6846) has announced
PrinMan, a printer utility that allows the user
to set printer commands directly from full¬
screen checklists. The user selects options from
the display of printer commands without pro¬
gramming or looking up control codes. Re¬
quires 128K. 549 for one printer; 515 for each
additional printer.
A Micromedx Corporation (187 Gardiners Av¬
enue, Levittown, NY 11756; 516-735-8979)
offers Nutriplan, a meal-planning and calorie-
monitoring program that lets diners determine
the nutritional value of meals. The program
has a built-in directory of more than 400 com¬
mon foods, and users can add up to 75 entries.
575.
A McDermott Computer Services (12 Manor
Haven Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6A
2H9; 416-789-0783) has announced Ultimate
Control , a word processor that contains a gen-
eral-purpose editor, a print formatter, a cross¬
reference generator, global correction, word
count, and file organization. The program
comes with a source code listing in CBasic and
8080 assembler, along with instructions on
how to alter the code to suit specific needs.
$29.95.
A Functional Software (Box 237, St. Clair
Shores, Ml 48080) has introduced The Calcu¬
lator, a business and scientific calculator that
performs simple calculations or computes
complex formulas. It has thirty-five built-in
functions, up to ten user-defined functions per
configuration, and the ability to save con¬
figurations on disk. Requires 128K. $49.95,
A Trio Systems (2210 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica, CA D04G3; 213-394-0706) has
announced C - Index + , a data-management
tnol for C programmers. The package can be
linked into C applications providing variable-
length data storage and data indexing func¬
tions, Also, the indexing features can be used
as a standard ISAM system for keyed access to
fixed-length data files. $400,
A Opt-Tech Sort 2,0f from Opt-Tech Data
Processing (Box 2167, Humble, TX 77347; 713-
454-7428) is an assembly language sort/merge
program that sorts dBase 11 files and can be
linked as a subroutine. The program can si¬
multaneously sort up to ten input files of any
record length or file size. Variable- and fixed-
length data can be sorted on up to nine key
fields. It can sort 1,000 records in ten seconds,
$99,
A Belboz the Necromancer has vanished, and
there are signs that he is in thrall to evil sorcery.
That's the scenario for Sorcerer, one of two
new titles from Infocom (55 Wheeler Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-492-1031). This is
the second in the Enchanter series nf adventure
in the mystic arts. $49,95. A Only you can save
the Aquadome, the world s first undersea re¬
search station. So begins Seastalker ; Infocom s
first game designed for those as young as nine.
$39.95.
A Sam Wilson and Associates (Box 37085,
Houston, TX 77237; 713-765-7830) has re¬
leased Banner, a utility that prints text in large
block letters lengthwise on continuous forms
using any pa rail el- interfaced printer. It allows
the choice of six-inch- or three-inch -high char¬
acters, prints banners up to seventy-five char¬
acters long, and provides for printer port
selection, Banners can be up to twenty feet
long. 539.95. A
PC LOGO
When you're
really serious
about LOGO
Whether you are a first lime computer user or an experienced programmer, PC
Logo offers you features noi available on other versions of Logo for the IBM PC.
like high resolution graphics, use of the 8087 co processor and a search and
replace function in the editor. What's more, since it requires 64K of memory, only
PC Logo will run on the IBM* PC. PCjr and the IBM PC compatibles. Compare:
PC Logo
DR. Logo
IBM Logo
Opera (mg Syste i n
DOS
CP/M
DOS
Minimum Memory Requirement
64 K
192K
128K
Ul ility Disk
YDS
NO
NO
Hard Disk
YES
NO
YES
Price
149,95
149.95
1 75.00
So why settle for (he ordinary? Ask for PC Logo at your soft ware dealer or comae l
Harvard Associates, Inc.. 260 Beacon SI reel, Somerville. MA 02143
Telephone (617) 492-0660.
IBM is ci iTgisttTt'd i rarit/mark nf tniemaiimml Bust ness Machines Carp.
DR | .ago is a trademark ni Digital Research Inc,
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer ]une 1984 153
by Ray Duncan
Shifts and Rotates
ur subject this time
is the general class
of instructions
known as shifts
and rotates. All of these instructions have the
property of sliding a value to the left or right
through one or more bit positions. They differ
from each other either in what they insert into
the bit position left vacant by the shift or rotate
or in how they dispose of the bit that “falls off
the edge."
Compared to its eight-bit ancestors, the In¬
tel 80$8 has a rich and powerful repertoire of
shift and rotate instructions. They can be used
to manipulate sixteen-bit values in any of the
eight data registers (AX, BX, CX, DX, SI, DI,
BP, SP) or eight-bit values in any of the half
registers (AH, AL, BH, BL, CH, CL, DH, DL).
In addition, they can operate directly on the
eight- or sixteen-bit contents of memory loca¬
tions addressed via all of the 8088's addressing
modes.
Overview by Groups. The arithmetic shifts
are represented by two mnemonics: SAR (Shift
Arithmetic Right) and SAL (Shift Arithmetic
Left). They are dubbed “arithmetic" because
they preserve the sign of numbers and can be
used to perform fast signed multiplications or
PC-Showofr
rntwc
rlrj
rjg Softstyle
Softstyle
s&gm. j _ k __ k sonaiyie
4P§ii I IT I IT Softstyle
KyMzm -| fd ^msm • Softstyle
mSmMwm PlPfi Softstyle
Z B m Softstyle
Entertaining and educational
PC-Shpwoff!
rlr
In a fast-paced fun format, PC-Showoff!
combines graphics, color, sound and
animation so you can teach yourself, or
just show off, what your PC can really do.
□ Enjoy the PC-Showoff! graphics and
sound effects show.
□ Create your own show with a little
knowledge of BASIC and the easy to
use PC-Showoff! instruction manual!
□ Learn how all the effects were done by
listing the PC-Showoff! programs.
□ And challenge yourself for the fun of it
with the sophisticated graphics game.
Ask your dealer for SoftStylQ’s PC-Showoff!
or order direct. Price $39.95.
Order toll-free: (800) 367-5600
MC/VISA accepted. Add $2 shipping/handling for U.S.
and Canada, others $10. Requires I BM-PC, PC-XT or
PCjr with graphics adaptor. 128Kfor DOS 2.0 or 2.1; 96K
for DOS 1.1. Color display or television recommended.
£J£) Softstyle
SoftStyle, Inc., Suite 205, Dept. D • 7192 Kalanianaoie Hwy.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96825 • Phone (808) 396-6368
divisions by powers of two. As you know,
when a binary value is regarded as a signed
number, the most significant bit is 0 if the num¬
ber is positive and 1 if the number is negative.
A right arithmetic shift must preserve the value
at this bit position while propagating it into the
other vacated bit positions. For example, as¬
sume that AX contains the number —2, which
has the two's complement representation FF-
FEH. After we perform the instruction
SAR AX,1
the register will contain the value —1, or FF-
FFH, and the carry flag will be 0. The sign bit
(bit 15) is preserved and copied into bit 14, and
the rest of the bits are shifted one position to
the right.
Both the left and right arithmetic shifts
copy the bit that's “shifted out" into the Carry
Hag. The left arithmetic shift instruction has
the same machine op-code as the left logical
shift, which is discussed below.
The logical shifts come in two flavors: SHR
(Shift Right) and SHL (Shift Left). These in¬
structions perform straightforwardly without
any special treatment of the sign bit. The vacat¬
ed bit position always becomes 0, and the bit
that's shifted out is always copied into the
Carry Hag. The logical shifts are used to per¬
form fast multiplies and divides on unsigned
values and are therefore very handy for ad¬
dress calculations.
Using our previous example again, suppose
that AX contains the unsigned value 65534 (FF-
FEH). After the computer executes:
SHR AX,1
AX will contain 32767 (7FFFH) and the Carry
Hag will be zero.
There are two simple rotate instructions:
ROR (Rotate Right) and ROL (Rotate Left).
These perform a circular shift on the desig¬
nated register or memory location; that is, the
bit that's shifted out from one end is moved
into the vacated position on the other. The bit
that switches ends, so to speak, is also copied
into the Carry Hag. The advantage of the sim¬
ple rotate instruction is that it is reversible; the
original value can be restored by another left
or right rotate.
154 June 1984 Softalkfor the IBM Personal Computer
Assume that register AX contains 0001H.
After the 8088 executes
ROR AX,1
the AX register will contain 8000H and the
Carry Flag will be set to 1.
Finally, we have the two rotate through
carry instructions: RCR (Rotate through
Carry Right) and RCL (Rotate through Carry
Left). The state of the Carry Flag before the
instruction is executed determines the value of
the bit inserted into the vacated position; the
value of the bit shifted out becomes the state of
the Carry Flag afterward . As we'll soon see,
these two operations are handy for the propa¬
gation of bit shifts through multiple registers or
memory locations.
Imagine that register AX contains the value
0001H and the Carry Flag is 0. After we
perform
RCR AX,1
register AX contains 0000H and the Carry Flag
is set to 1.
Multiple Shifts and Rotates. Each of the in¬
structions just described can be coded as either
a single- or multiple-bit operation. To signify a
single-bit shift or rotate, put a 2 in the part of
the operand field that normally contains the
source operand, For example, to rotate the
contents of register DI left one position, code:
ROL DU
To perform a multiple-bit shift or rotate, you
must first ensure that the CL register contains
the number of iterations you desire, then code
the shift/rotate instruction with a CL in the
source operand field. For example, to do a logi¬
cal shift left four bit positions on the contents
of BX, you might write:
MOV CL, 4
SHL BX,CL
The above two instructions and the following
sequence
SHL BX,1
SHL BX,1
SHL BX,1
SHL BX,1
would be identical in their effect on the BX reg¬
ister. There are ramifications to consider, how¬
ever, when choosing between these two
instruction sequences. The most obvious one is
that the "CL" variation of SHL overwrites the
previous contents of the CL register. Less obvi¬
ous effects relate to execution speed and the
number of bytes occupied by the instructions.
The first combination, consisting of a MOV
and a single SHL, occupies only four bytes of
memory. The second, with four SHL instruc¬
tions in a row, occupies eight bytes of memory.
Clearly, the first version executes faster, right?
Wrong! According to the Intel documentation,
the MOV and SHL sequence takes twenty-
eight machine cycles, while the series of four
single-bit SHLs requires only eight. A rather
dramatic trading of space for speed.
Shifts and Flags. In addition to their afore¬
mentioned effects on the Carry Flag, the shifts
and rotates also change one or more of the
Zero, Sign, or Overflow status flags. See figure
1 for a summary.
Things That Are Shiftable. As mentioned
before, you can apply your newfound arsenal
of shift and rotate commands to any of the
general sixteen-bit registers. For example,
ROL AX,1
RCL DI,CL
You can also use these instructions on any of
the eight-bit half registers:
SAR BH,1
SHR DH,CL
You can shift or rotate values directly in mem¬
ory, without loading them into a register first.
All of the 8088's direct or indexed addressing
modes are legal. For example,
XYZ DW 0
SHL XYZ,1
If you are not explicitly referencing a
named, typed variable, you need to tell the as¬
sembler whether you want the eight-bit or six¬
teen-bit variety of the instruction — or else you
may not get the code you expect. For example:
ROR BYTE PTR [BX],1
would be used to "right rotate" a one-byte
value whose address is in the register BX, while
ROR WORD PTR [BX],1
would be used to "right rotate" a sixteen-bit
(two-byte) value. In the latter case, the address
in BX points to the first, or least significant,
byte.
A Few Practical Examples
Fast Multiplication. In order to fetch data out
of an array, it is usually necessary to multiply
an index by some power of two that relates to
the number of bytes per item of data. Suppose
that AX contains the index and we want to
multiply it by 4 to get the true offset into the
array. We could code:
MOV DX,4
MUL ’AX,DX
which would take a minimum of 118 cycles to
execute, or we could write:
SHL AX,1
SHL AX,1
which requires only four cycles! The first ver¬
sion also destroys the previous contents of reg¬
ister DX, while the second doesn't affect any
other registers. With a little additional trickery,
we can use shifts to multiply by numbers other
than powers of 2. The following code multi¬
plies the contents of register AX by 10 (this is a
useful gimmick for converting ASCII numeric
strings to binary):
MOV BX,AX
SHL AX,1 ; * 2
SHL AX,1 ; * 4
ADD AX,BX ; * 5
ACTIVE TRACE
“A marvelous Basic
programming aid ...
It’s just amazing to watch a
program you wrote run under
Scope, and debugging
becomes if not trivial, then at
least doable. ”
Thomas Bonoma, Microcomputing
Dec. ’83, p 22
"Extremely useful program
. . . Anyone doing much pro¬
gramming in Basic should
appreciate Active Trace a lot
Jerry Pournelle, Byte Magazine
April ’83, p 234
Spaghetti code is what many ‘ ‘experts1 4
call a beginner's Basic program which is
all tangled up and difficult to follow. The
Active Trace package will help you learn
how to avoid the pitfalls of structureless
programs. And if you already have a pro¬
gram which is too confusing to follow, or
has an error which is hiding, relax.
Active Trace doesn’t get confused. Active
Trace will lead you through your program
letting you know variable values (all vari¬
ables or just those you specify) as they
change. In a form a novice can under¬
stand, your program’s internal activity is
presented on your screen, or printer, or
it can be saved on disk.
For more advanced programmers, the
disk file of your programs activity can be
used with your word processor to auto¬
matically find the source of an error and
display the circumstances surrounding its
occurrence.
Ready to Order?
Just have a Question?
Contact your dealer or call
Toll Free: 800-358-91 20(US)
800-862-4948(CA)
Active Trace $79.95
Complete package includes Scope, XREF
mapping and documentation
Scope Separately $49.95
Only recommended lor those who already
own professional mapping (XREF) programs
Active Trice is available for most MS-DOS and CPM 2.2
systems and supports the special features of Brand specific
versions of Microsoft Basic such as Bulca on the 1BM-PC.
AWARECO
.zlctive Software
P.0. Box 695 Gualala, CA 95445
(707) 884-4019
Active trace. Active software, AWARECO and Scope are
trademarks of A Ware Company— CPM is a trademark of
Oigital Research— MS-DOS and Microsoft are trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation— IBM-PC is a trademark of IBM Corp.
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 155
SHL AX,1 ? * 10
Fast Division. Bit maps are extremely useful
concepts that find application in relocation of
object code, sorting and searching, and logical
operations on data sets. Assume that BX con¬
tains the base address of a bit map and AX con¬
tains a bit number in the range 0 through
65535. We'll first divide the bit number by 8 to
find the byte offset, then use the remainder to
isolate and test the specific bit:
MOV CX, AX
SHR AX,1
SHR AX,1
SHR AX,1
ADD BX,AX
MOV AL,[BX]
AND CX,7
ROR AL,CL
TEST AL,1
The Zero Flag now reflects the status (0 or 1) of
the desired bit and can be used to control a
conditional jump.
Multiple-Precision Multiply or Divide. The
Rotate through Carry instructions can be used
to multiply or divide a number of any byte
length, and they therefore form the heart of
your compiler's math library. In the following
example, suppose that registers AX, BX, CX,
and DX contain a sixty-four-bit integer, with
the most significant sixteen bits in AX and the
least significant in DX. We want to multiply
the entire integer by 2, which means shifting
everything left one bit. This operation can be
coded:
SHL DX,1
RCL CX,1
RCL BX,1
RCL AX,1
Similarly, a signed divide by 2 could be per¬
formed on the same integer with:
SAR AX,1
RCR BX,1
RCR CX,1
RCR DX,1
or an unsigned divide by 2 with:
SHR AX,1
RCR BX,1
RCR CX,1
RCR DX,1
Fast Bit Testing. In cases where speed is of
utmost importance, it is sometimes preferable
to prepare for a conditional branch by using a
rotate to set the Carry Flag rather than taking
the more conventional approach of using the
AND or TEST instructions to set the Zero
Flag. For example,
ROR AX,1
JB label
is one cycle faster than
TEST AX,1
JNZ label
The disadvantage of the rotate approach is
that it modifies the contents of AX.
Instruction O S Z P C
SAL X X
SAR X X X X X
SHL
SHR
ROL
ROR
RCL
RCR
O = Overflow Flag
S = Sign Flag
Z = Zero Flag
P « Parity Flag
C = Carry Flag
Figure 1. Effects of shift and rotate instructions on the CPU status
flags (adapted from the Intel documentation). Those of you who use
the excellent book by Rector and Alexy as a reference should note
that the tables on pages 4-68 through 4-70 are partially incorrect.
1
2
3
V
5
5
7
9
10
U
n oooo
i i
B
15
16 0000
17
18
19
pane ascbin
page 55,132
title ’flSCflIHi ASCII to Binary Conversion’
i This file contains a pair of routines to
; convert decimal ASCII or hexadecimal ASCII
; strings into 32-bit integers,
; Ray Duncan, April 1901
cseg segment para public ’CODE’
assume csscseg,ds!cseg,ss:cseg
decjin proc near Convert decimal ASCII string
terminated by 2ero <null) byte into
;a 32-bit signed binary integer,
; Conversion ends on zero byte or the
2D
21
22
23
21
25
26
2?
2B
29
30
31
32
33
31
35
0000 33 C9
xor
36
0002 33 D2
xor
37
oooi bb rrrr
nou
30
39
000? 8fl 01
now
10
0009 3C 20
cnp
11
0000 75 01
jne
12
0000 16
inc
13
00DE EB 08 90
jmp
11
15
D011
decjunli
16
0011 3C 20
, , cmp
17
0013 75 03
jne
IB
0015 32 rr
xor
19
001? 16
inc
50
51
0018
dec_bin2*
52
0018 AC
lodsb
53
0019 00 00
or
51
001B 71 3C
Jz
55
0010 3C 2E
cmp
\#':
OOIT 71 2E
Jz
57
0021 3C 39
cmp
SB
0023 77 32
ja
59
0025 3C30
cmp
60
At
0027 72 2E
jb
'#■' ,
62 1
0029 DR 0B
or
63
002B 78 02
js
61
0020 fl C3
inc
6S
66
002T
dec_bin3:
67
002F 50
push
68
0030 88 T9
nou
69
0032 80 C2
nou
#i:
71
0031 01 El
shl
{first uncowertable digit.
{Call with
;05:SI * addr of ASCII string
{Returns
;CY flag 3 1 if illegal input string,
{contents of other registers undefined.
; or
;CY flag a 0 if legal input string, and
jOXtCK o signed 32-bit binary integer
;BL c number of digits after decimal
; place, or -1 if no dec. point
{initialization...
cx,cx
;set forming ansuer to zero
dx,dx
bx,-l
{dear decimal place counter and
;sign flag.
al,[sU
;
al,V
;is leading * sign present?
dec.binl
;no, jump.
si
dec_bin2
;yes, just skip over it.
■l,'-1
;is leading - sign present?
dec_bin2
bh, bh
{yes, set sign flag and skip
si
;ouer the character.
al,al
;get next character from input string.
sUlt null byte?
dec_binB
; yes, finished with string.
al,V
?is it decimal point?
dec_bin1
;yes,go process it.
al/91
snake sure it is legal character 0-9.
decjin?
;char j ’9’, e/it with error flag.
al,,0t
decjin?
;char ( ’0% exit with error flag.
bl,bl
{are ue past a decimal point?
decjin3
;no,jurp
bl
{yes, count digits
ax
;add another digit to forming ansuer .
{first save this character
di,cx
{make copy of the current ansuer
ax,dx
cx,l
{multiply current ansuer by 10
156 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
Pop Quiz
Try to imagine a reasonable use for a shift or
rotate of the SP register. The first reader send¬
ing a plausible answer (plausible, that is, in my
humble judgment) will get a free box of disk¬
ettes and the pleasure of seeing his or her name
immortalized in print. Send your suggestions
to "What, Me Rotate?", Softalk/IBM, Box
7040, North Hollywood, CA 91605. Feedback
about this column is also welcome.
Conversion Subroutines
Utility routines to convert ASCII numeric
strings to sixteen-bit binary integers can be
found in many books and magazine articles. In
this month's program listing we provide a
much more general and powerful pair of pro¬
cedures that convert an ASCII decimal string
into a thirty-two-bit signed integer, or an
ASCII hexadecimal string into a thirty-two-bit
unsigned integer. The two routines are good
examples of the use of the shift and rotate in¬
structions.
For both subroutines, the DS register
should point to the segment containing the
string and the SI register should contain the
offset address. In these listings, the string must
end with a null (0) byte, although this require¬
ment can be easily modified. Decimal ASCII
strings can have a leading + or — sign, a deci¬
mal point, and one or more characters of the
set {0. . .9}. Hexadecimal ASCII strings may
not have a leading sign or embedded decimal
point and must be composed entirely of char¬
acters from the set {0. . .9,A. . .F}.
If the ASCII string is valid, the routines re¬
turn the Carry Flag false, the upper sixteen bits
of the result in register DX, and the lower six¬
teen bits in CX. In the case of the decimal-to-
binary conversion, BL will contain —1 (0FFH),
if no decimal point is encountered, or the num¬
ber of digits after the decimal point if one is
encountered. If the ASCII string is invalid, the
Carry Flag is returned true and the contents of
the other registers are undefined.
Remember, if you are a CompuServe sub¬
scriber you can download the assembly lan¬
guage source code for the programs printed in
this column from the Programming Database
of the IBM PC Special Interest Group. Enter:
GO PCS-131 at the / prompt, then XA 4 to get
access to the database.
Corrections
Some errors were introduced into the listing of
the DUMP program (May 1984) during the
typesetting process. Line 300 should read:
input — addr dw —1 relative address
in file
Line 309 should have read:
db blank
And line 319 should have read:
db 7 dup (blank) ▲
72
0036
01 02
rcl
?»2
125
;CY flag = 0 input string legal, and
73
003B
01 El
5 111
cx,l
126
;0XjCX » signed 32-bit integer.
71
0038
01 02
rcl
d*,l
;* 1
127
75
003C
03 CF
add
cx,di
12B
{initialization...
76
003E
13 00
adc
dx,ax
;»5
129
0069 33 C9
xor
cx,cx
;set forning answer to zero
77
0010
01 El
sf)l
CX|1
130
006B 33 02
xor
dx,dx
78
0012
01 02
rcl
dx,l
;<• 10
131
79
132
0060
hexjinli
BO
0011
5B
pop
ax
restore new character
133
oo&o ac
lodsb
;get next character fron input atring.
B1
0015
25 ooor
and
ax,0fh
{isolate binary value 0-9
131
006E Oft CO
or
al.al
{is it null byte?
B2
;fron the ASCII character code
135
0070 71 20
jz
hexJinB
;yes, finished with string.
83
0018
03 C8
add
cx,ax
land add it to the forning answer.
136
0072 3C30
cnp
al,’0’
{no, nake sure char, is legal.
81
0018
83 02 00
adc
137
0071 72 27
jb
hex Jin?
;char < *0’, exit with error flag.
B5
001D
EB C9
jnp
decjin2
:get next character
130
0076 3C39
cnp
al,’9*
86
139
0078 76 DC
jbe
hexjin3
{char < ’9’, proceed
87
001F
decjinl:
{decinal point detected.
HO
{If char > ,9%
88
ooir
08 0B
or
bl.bl
5 did we find one before?
111
0078
hexjin2»
{check for char. W-’F* or ’a* - ’f\
89
0051
79 01
Jns
dec Jin?
{yes, exit with error flag.
112
0078 0C 20
or
al,20h
{first fold character to lower case.
90
0053
32 08
xor
bl.bl
;no, clear decinal point counter
113
007C 3C66
cnp
al,T
91
0055
EB Cl
jnp
decjin2
:and go to next input character.
111
007E 77 10
ja
hexjin7
;char > 'F* or T, exit with error flag.
92
115
0060 3C61
cnp
al, V
93
0057
decjin?t
;illegal input string,
116
0082 72 19
jb
hex, bin?
;char < T or ’a’, exit with error flag,
91
0057
F9
stc
{return CY flag 9 1
117
0081 01 09
add
el, 9
{add fudge factor so we'll get
95
0058
C3
ret
HO
{correct binary value later.
96
119
97
0059
dec_bin8*
5 legal input string, return CY flag B 0
150
0086
hexjin3«
;add another digit to forning answer.
9B
;DMX * signed binary integer,
151
0086 01 Cl
shl
cx, 1
{first shift current answer lef.t 1 bits.
99
;BL ■ digits after decinal pt.
152
0088 01 02
rcl
dx,l
100
0059
08 FF
or
bh,bh
;did string start with - sign?
153
0088 01 Q
shl
cx,l
101
OOSB
75 08
jm
decjin9
;no,jwp
151
DOBC 0102
rcl
dx, 1
102
0050
F7 01
not
cx
;yes, take 2’s conplenent of answer.
155
008E 01 El
shl
cx.l
103
OflSF
F7 02
not
dx
;by inverting it and adding 1.
156
0090 01 02
rcl
dx, 1
101
0061
83 Cl 01
add
cxvl
157
0092 01 £1
shl
cx,l
105
0061
B3 02 00
adc
dx,0
150
0091 01 02
rcl
dx,l
106
159
0096 25 OQOf
and
ax,0fh
{isolate binary value 0-8
107
0067
decjin9i
{string successfully converted,
160
;fron the ASCII character code
108
0067
F8
clc
•.signal with CY flag >= 0
161
0099 00 CB
or
cx,ax
;and add it to the forning answer.
109
110
0068
C3
ret
162
163
0098 EB00
j"P
hexjinl
{get next character
111
0069
dec Jin endp
161
0090
hex_bin?J
{illegal input string,
ill
165
0090 T9
stc
{return CY flag B 1
113
166
Q09E C3
ret
111
0069
hex_bi n proc
near
’.Convert hexadeciral ASCII string
16?
115
;teminated by zero (null) byte into
160
009F
htxJinB*
{legal Input string, return
116
*.a 32-bit binary integer.
169
009F FB
clc
;BX*CX = 32-tdt unsigned integer,
117
{Conversion ends on zero byte or the
170
0080 C3
ret
{signal success by CY flag ■ 0
lie
{first unconvertable digit.
171
119
«
172
0081
hex Jin endp
120
;Call with
173
121
:0St5I 3 addr of hex 85CII string
171
0081
cseg ends
122
Returns
175
123
;CY flag * 1 input string illegal
176
end
121
; or
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 157
If April 15 left you numbed out by numbers, you’ll
want to know about Howard Soft’s Tax Preparer. No
more last-minute rummaging through reams of
receipts; Tax Preparer keeps you and your records
organized all year long.
Instead of shoeboxes full of illegible bits of
paper, Tax Preparer puts an electronic form on the
screen of your IBM -PC compatible ,T1 Professional,
or Apple computer. Just fill in the blanks and let Tax Preparer do the rest. HowardSoft $
unique Translate feature lets you enter information as it accumulates. Then each year’s
update applies the data to the new tax laws in a
matter of minutes.
With Unlimited Itemizing, you can enter as
many lines as you need on supplemental forms, and
make notes about the entries as you go. You can
plan your tax strategies while there's still time to
make them add up, and answer “what-if” questions
in just minutes.
Still, even the best laid plans sometimes
have loopholes. Then, Tax Preparer lets you make
last-minute changes easily, calculates quickly and
accurately, and — at the touch of a key— delivers
error- free printouts ready to sign and drop
in the mail.
HowardSoft Tax Preparer gives you more
features than the high-priced packages at a fraction
of the cost. Clear instructions, the most-used forms
and schedules, and inexpensive annual updates keep you current year after year after year.
So why not put Tax Preparer to work early? Visit the computer store nearest you
for a demonstration of the _
Tax Preparer
by HowardSoft.
The #1 selling tax software.
top-selling tax package in
the country. You’H see how
many happy returns one
program can give you.
All year long.
m: rrr.
8008 Girard Avenue, Suite 810, La Jolla, CA 92087 * (ft 19) 454-0121
Softalk Presents
The Bestsellers
The pen may or may not be mightier than the sword, but the spread¬
sheet is certainly mightier than the word.
Folks, it's time once again to marvel at the absolute domination of I-
2-3 in the IBM software market. Nows as good a time as any to reem¬
phasize the strength of the product, because the word processing genre
can provide us with a standard for comparison.
First a word about word processing. Almost everyone does it. In
April, tour of the top ten programs and five of the top fourteen were
word processors. It certainly is not a market for the faint of heart.
You've got big players: MicroPro, with a recently raised 535 million
war chest; Software Publishing, with its gang of four bestselling soft¬
ware products; and Microsoft, with its tight relationship with IBM.
You've got new players: MultiMate International comes to the mar¬
ket from nowhere with a product that looks like a Wang dedicated
word processor and sells like sarsaparilla at a Prohibition conclave.
You've got little players: Satellite Software competes with the big
guns from a Utah base that's as distant from the centers of silicon cul¬
ture as the XT is from the Junior.
As it washed out in April, the winner by a nose in this hot competi¬
tion was MultiMate. seventh in the Top Thirty. PFS: Write was eighth,
WordStar ninth, WordPerfect tenth, and Word fourteenth.
So what does all this have to do with 1-2-3?
Together, these five packages, from some of the biggest purveyors of
microcomputer software in America, almost sold as much as 1-2-3.
There was a couple-of-thousand-unit difference between the aggregate
of the five word processors and the sales of Mitch Kapor's breadwinner.
1-2-3 is so hot it makes a microwave oven seem like a Boy Scout
campfire, 1-2-3 is so strong it could make a monkey out of King Kong,
1-2-3 generates enough cash to make Croesus weep with envy.
Competitors can only shudder at the thought that 1-2-3 is not Kapor
at his best. He's got Symphony coming down the road. What great fun
if you've got a spreadsheet or integrated software package of your
own. It seems more futile to compete with 1-2-3 than it would be to try
to drain the Gulf of Mexico with a teaspoon.
Even as a product starts taking on the aura of invincibility, however,
new evidence comes to light that undermines that conviction. This
month the example is Ashton-Tate and dBase IL
For months, dBase 11 has sold so well that no other database prnduct
has been able to achieve any significant movement in the IBM market.
It's generally been true that dBase 11 has been to databases what 1-2-3
has been to spreadsheets. The major difference has been the wider mar¬
ket for spreadsheet products.
Ashton-Tate scored even better in April than usual. dBase pushed
ahead of Microsoft Flight Simulator into second place on the Top
Thirty. Friday! also moved onto the bottom rung of the list. Friday! is a
simplified version of dBase II that flared briefly on introduction, then
disappeared from sight. Now its prospects are healthy and it s gaining
wider acceptance.
So what happens?
Along comes R:Base 4000 from Microrim, lust when it was looking
as foolish to tackle dBase l! as it was to challenge 1-2-3, R:Base climbed
into twenty-ninth place. It isn't exactly a neck- and- neck race yet —
dBase H is selling eight times as well as R:8ase 4000 — but the very fact
that R:Base made a dent can give hope to the numerous software pub¬
lishers intent on assaulting 1-2-3' s position.
The biggest surprise showing in April came from Sideways, a print
Hundreds o t computer owners have discovered
J the benefits oi PC Demo. When you subscribe you *
m receive: H
| a monthly diskette magazine packed with
demo programs.
t access to a library of demo programs you
can order individually
I a $6 discount coupon each month good
toward any software purchase from
800-Software.
Prompt service and reasonable prices.
Our rapidly growing
of software demo programs now includes
LBJN
mm
*■- ~ ■
Multi -User dBasell
Think tank
■i
ASHTON TATE
LIVING VIDEOTEXT
■ m
MioroCAD
Home Acco uniant
COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
CONTINENTAL SOFTWARE
Bd
pis write
Integrated 6
NORTH AMERICAN
5U5INES5 SYSTEMS
MOSAIC SOFTWARE
Concurrent CP/M
vmm
Four Point Graphics
DIGITAL RESEARCH
mam
bb
LM5I
R esQ
Omni file
SSR CGRP
—
KEY SOFTWARE
mmt
Harvard Project Manager
HARVARD SOFTWARE INC
Cdex Training Programs
mmt
wmm
CDEX
—
PC/FORTH
Prokey
LABORATORY MICROSYSTEMS
ROSESOFT
and many more
EKS
■■1
Our price? $6 per month. All you need is 64K RAM ™
and one double-sided disk drive to sample the ^
— best newly- released soft ware for the IBM PC and XT
Join the others and sign up for a 3 -month subscription
To subscribe, phone (415) 974-5134 with Visa
MasterCard or send us the coupon below: ™
_ Please sign me up for the next 3 issues of PC-Demo ”
— at a cost of just $18 (domestic) or $21 (foreign) —
““ Payment Check or M.O. [ Visa MasterCard ■“
” Card No. _ _ _
— Expiration Date _ ——
Signature _ _ _ _
„ n Tell me how I can get my software on PC -Demo
Name _
Address _ „
City _ _ State
Zip
""" MAIL TO: SOFT PEDDLE, 1724 Sacramento St. No. 444 “
_ San Francisco, CA 94109
Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer June 1984 159
utility that provides the capability to dump data in the manner its name
implies. Sideways has been around for a while without making many
waves, but it jumped into sixteenth, the best showing of any product
new to the list.
Other software that made the list for the first time includes Harvard
Project Majiager ; in twenty-seventh, and Delta Drawing, in twenty-
eighth. PF$; Graph rejoined the Top Thirty.
The showing of Barron's SAT is particularly strong, as it overhauled
Computer SAT from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, a program that had
already established itself in the market.
The presence of such titles as Barron s SAT and Delta Drawing
speak For the impact of PCjr on the market.
Some things stay relatively static, PFS:Filet April's fifth-ranked pro¬
gram, has no competition in sight. Crosstalk continues to clobber Asy¬
IBM -franchised retail ilorts representing approximately 4.00 percent ot J\ sabs uf
IBM and IBM- related Personal Computer products volunteered to participate in I he poll
Respondents were contacted early in May to ascertain their sales for the month ol
April.
The only criterion For inclusion on the list was the number of units sold; such other
criteria as quality of product , profitability to the eompul er store, ami personal preference
of the individual respondents were not considered
Respondents in May represented every geograpEifcal area of the continental United
Slates,
Results of the responses were tabulated usinj; a formyls that resulted m the index
number to the left of the program name in the Top Thirty listing. The index number is an
arbitrary measure of relative strength of the programs listed Index numbers are correla¬
tive only to the month in which they are printed; readers cannot assume that an index
rating of 50 in one month represents eq nival en I sales to an index number nl 50 in another
month.
Probability ot statistical error is plus or minus 3. IQ percent , which translates roughly
into the theoretical possibility of a change of 3 Al points, plus or minus, in any index
number.
StatPac
Statistical
Analysis Package
A complete data manager
and statistical analysis
package similar to mainframe
SPSS . *
StatPac’s features include:
batch processing, variable
and value labels, select if,
recode, recode if, compute,
compute if, sort cases, list
cases, write subfile, frequen¬
cies, descriptive statistics,
crosstabs & chi-square,
correlation & linear regres¬
sion, t-test for matched pairs
or independent groups, multi¬
ple regression, one and two-
way anova, two kinds of
multiple variable response.
StatPac can handle fixed or
free format data files and
5000 cases with up to 255
columns of information per
case, Statistic selections and
printing options are available
on all analyses including
graphics and paper saving
ecology feature.
For selected micro¬
computers, including IBM PC
and XT, Victor 9000, TRS-80,
KAYPRQ, and NCR.
Available from :
Walonick Associates
5624 Girard Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55419
612-866-9022
May also be ordered from
your College Bookstore
through the National Associa¬
tion of College Stores
(NAG SC OR P). Oberlin, Ohio.
“SPSS is 3 Trademark ol SPSS, Inc
The Quality Analysis Package for the Professional
nchronous Communications Support 2.0 in the communications
market. And Home Accountant Plus continues to ward off Dollars and
Sense as the personal finance choice.
April turned out to be a mixed month for Software Arts, author of
VisiCalc. VisiCak: Advanced Vet's ion plummeted in the face of 1-2-3’$
strong showing, but TJC/Solrer tied for thirty-second, its best showing
in some months. A
Top Thirty
This Last
Month Month Index
1
1
249,63
1-2-3, Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs; Lotus
Development
2
3
97.33
dBase IL Wayne Ratliff; Ashton-Tate
3
2
91.37
Microsoft Flight Simulator, Bruce Artwick;
Microsoft
4
4
70,19
PFS:Fi!er John Page and D.D. Roberts;
Software Publishing Corporation
10
70,19
Copy 11 Plus; Centra! Point Software
6
12
60,91
Crosstalk; Microstuf
7
26
52.31
MultiMate; MultiMate International
8
5
48.33
PFS: Write, Sam Edwards, Brad Crain, and Ed
Mitchell; Software Publishing Corporation
9
6
46,35
WordStar; MicroPro
to
24
41,71
WordPerfect, Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian;
Satellite Software
11
8
37,74
PF5;Report, John Page; Software Publishing
Corporation
12
9
35.75
Multiplan; Microsoft
13
18
35.09
MasterType, Bruce Zweig; Scarborough
Systems
14
29
33.10
Word; Microsoft
15
29
31,78
Norton Utilities, Peter Norton; Peter Norton
Inc.
16
—
29.79
Sideways; Funk Software
17
13
27,14
Home Accountant Plus, Mike Farmer, Bob
Schoenburg, Larry Grodin, and Steve Pollack;
Arrays/Continental Software
18
11
26.48
Zork I; Infocom
19
—
23,83
PF5:Graph, Bessie Chin and Stephen Hill;
Software Publishing Corporation
20
7
19.86
Typing Tutor, Michael Sierchio (Dick
Ainsworth and A1 Baker); IBM (Microsott)
21
16
17,87
Basic Compiler, Microsoft; IBM
22
17.87
Dollars and Sense, Frank E. Mu 11 in;
Monogram
23
22
16.55
Macro Assembler, Microsoft; IBM
24
—
15.89
Harvard Project Manager; Harvard Software
25
15
15.22
Asynchronous Communications Support 2.0;
IBM
—
15.22
Sorcerer; Infocom
27
—
14,56
Barron's SAT; Barron's
28
—
13.90
Delta Drawing, Computer Access
Corporation: Spinnaker Software
29
—
12,58
R;Base 4000; Micro rim
30
—
11.25
Friday!; Ashton-Tate
20
11.25
Early Games for Young Children, John
Paulson; Counterpoint Software
160 June 1984 Softalk for the IBM Personal Computer
softcilk
for the IBM Personal Computer
Trial subscription free to IBM.Compaq and Corona personal computer owners.
PC/Compaq/Corona Serial # _
Name _
Address _
City/State _ Zip _
□ I don’t own an IBM or Compaq pc, but I would still like to subscribe.
□ Payment enclosed.
□ Visa Mastercard _
Acct.# Exp. Date
Signature _ Date _
Regular Subscription Rate: $24 per year.
Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of the first issue.
WE MUST HAVE YOUR SERIAL NUMBER TO PROCESS FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS
A SOFTALK PUBLICATION
NO POSTAGE
NECESSARY
IF MAILED
IN THE
UNITED STATES
BUSINESS REPLY CARD
FIRST CLASS PERMIT NO. 673 NO. HOLLYWOOD, CA
POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE
softcilk
for the IBM Personal Computer
P.O. Box 7040
North Hollywood, California 91605
word processing
The shortest distance between
your thoughts and the printed word.
Your thoughts come foster than your
words. Capturing them smoothly and '
quickly is the strength of Textra, and 1
secret behind its success*
Textra blends advanced features with a
simplified design that makes it easier to
write with your personal computer. And
that's what word pro cessing is all about, , ,
Start with the * on-line* tutorial, which
has been called everything from elegant
to excellent. It's the finest introduction
to a software program ever filmed* You'll
be ready to write in record lime.
And Textra will be ready for you . Its
highly responsive full screen editor
helps you put your thoughts on the
screen swiftly. Automatic reformatting
and on-screen bolding and underlining
show you what your printed text will
look like at all times. You can even
preview your pages before they're
printed, so you only have to print
them once!
Whether you're searching for your first
word processor, or feel miserable with
the one you have now, take a close look
at Textra, Ask your dealer for a demon¬
stration today.
It's guaranteed to open your eye,
Ann Arbor Software
407 tV, Main* Ann Arbor, Ml 4S104 Phone (313) 769-9088
■V. 1983, Ann Arbor Software, Ali rights reserved.
Introducing the Most Powerful
Business Software Ever!
FOR YOUR TRS-80 • IBM • APPLE • KAYPRO • COMMODORE 64 • MSDOS OR CP/M COMPUTER*
Series
Each VersaBusiness module can be purchased and used independently ,
or can be linked in any combination to form a complete, coordinated business system*
VeRSARECEIVABLES™ $99.95
Versa Rec El VABLE5 t' is a complete menu-driven accounts receivable, invoicing, and
monthly state merit -generating system. It keeps track of all information related to who
owes you or your company money, and can provide automatic billing for past due ac¬
counts, VErsa Receivables'" prints ail necessary statemenis, invoices, and summary
reports and can be linked with VersaLedger IF“ and Versa In UEMTORY1"*
VERSAPAYABLES” $99.95
VERSA PAYABLES1' is designed to keep track of current and aged payables, keeping you
in touch with ail information regarding how much money your company owes, and to
whom. VtRS a Payables" maintains a complete record on each vendor, prints checks,
check registers, vouchers, transaction reports, aged payables reports, vendor reports,
and more. With VERSaPaYABLES", you can even let your computer automatically select
which vouchers are to be paid.
VERSAPAYROLL’" $99.95
Versa Payroli:- is a powerful and sophisticated, but easy to use payroll system that
keeps track of all government -required payroll information. Complete employee records
are maintained, and all necessary payroll calculations are performed automatically, with
totals displayed on screen for operator approval A payroll can be run totally, automat i
cally, or the operator can intervene to prevent a check from being printed, or to alter
information on it. If desired, totals may be posted lo the VERSA LEDGER II™ system.
VeRSaINVENTORY’" $99.95
Versa Inventory" is a complete inventory control system that gives you instant access
to data on any item. VERSA INVENTORY" keeps track of all information related to what
items are in stock, out of slock, on backorder, etc., stores safes and pricing data, alerts
you when an item falls below a preset reorder point, and allows you to enter and print
invoices directly or to link with the VErsa Recej VABLE5" system. Versa Inventor Y,u prims
all needed inventory listings, reports of items below reorder point, inventory value re¬
ports, period and year-to-date sales reports, price lists, inventory checklists, etc.
iCQMPUTRQNICS:
50 N. PASCACK ROAD, SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. 10977
VersaLedger h™ $149.95
VersaLedger It™ is a complete accounting system that grows as your business
grows. VersaLedger II™ con be used as a simple personal checkbook register,
expanded to a small business bookkeeping system or developed into a large
corporate general ledger system without any additional software.
* VersaLedger II™ gives you almost unlimited storage capacity
(300 to 10,000 entries per month, depending on the system ),
* stores all check and general ledger information forever,
* prints tractor-feed checks,
* handles multiple checkbooks and general ledgers,
* prints 17 customized accounting reports including check registers,
balance sheets, income statements, transaction reports, account
listings, etc.
VERSA Ledger If4* comes with a professionally- writ ten 160 page manual de¬
signed for first-time users. The VERSALEDGER II™ manual will help you become
quickly familiar with VersaLedger II™, using complete sample data files
supplied on diskette and more than 50 pages of sample printouts.
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!
Every VERSABUSINESS ■ module is guaranteed 1 0 Outperform all other competitive eygtgfflS,
and at a Faction cf their cost - If you a? e not satisfied with any VER5ABU5I NESS'" module, you
ntay return it within 30 days (or L\ refund. Manual's for any VERS ABUS! NESS" module may be
purchased for $25 each, credited toward a later purchase of that module
AH CP/M- based Computers must tw? equipped with Microsoft BASIC
(MB ASIC or BASIC 30)
To Order:
Write or call Toll-free (800) 431-2818
(MY.S. residents call 914-425-1535)
* add S3 lor shipping in UPS areas
* add $4 for C.O.D. or non-UPS areas
* add $5 to CANADA or MEXICO
* add proper postage elsewhere
DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME
All prices and specifications sublet to change / Delivery subject to availability.
•The VenaBusiness Series is avsilabkt for TRS 90 IBM APPLE KAYPRO COMMODORE 64 OSBORNE XEROX TELEVIDEO SANYO ZENITH NEC DEC Tl EPSON MORROW
MICRO DECISION NQRTH5TAR MSDOS and CP/M computers with S' diskdrives [Computer names arc tradenames and/or trademarks of their respective manufacturers!.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11